Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Prospect Capital from $5.00 to $4.50 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 30th.

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

PSEC opened at $4.53 on Friday. Prospect Capital has a 52-week low of $4.15 and a 52-week high of $6.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.98 billion, a PE ratio of -17.42 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.48. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.24.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $196.31 million for the quarter. Prospect Capital had a positive return on equity of 12.19% and a negative net margin of 2.23%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO John F. Barry bought 205,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.40 per share, with a total value of $905,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 72,612,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $319,496,491.60. This trade represents a 0.28 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO M Grier Eliasek bought 210,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $4.81 per share, for a total transaction of $1,010,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,131,130 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,250,735.30. The trade was a 10.93 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have bought 3,273,173 shares of company stock valued at $15,121,420. 27.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. XML Financial LLC grew its position in Prospect Capital by 8.1% during the third quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 2,044,448 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,938,000 after buying an additional 153,180 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN acquired a new stake in Prospect Capital during the second quarter worth approximately $137,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Prospect Capital by 23.3% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,938,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,376,000 after buying an additional 1,690,290 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its position in Prospect Capital by 387.3% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 175,953 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $973,000 after buying an additional 139,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Prospect Capital by 344.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 933,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,992,000 after buying an additional 722,925 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 9.06% of the company’s stock.

About Prospect Capital

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.