XTX Topco Ltd Takes Position in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 15,056 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $296,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HTGC. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Hercules Capital in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Hercules Capital during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in Hercules Capital by 59,650.0% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,390 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 2,386 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in Hercules Capital by 2,067.0% during the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 353,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 336,921 shares during the period. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in Hercules Capital by 198.9% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 5,380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $106,000 after buying an additional 3,580 shares during the period. 19.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HTGC opened at $19.19 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a market capitalization of $3.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.50 and a beta of 1.36. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.83 and a twelve month high of $21.78. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.65.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 65.07% and a return on equity of 17.88%. The company had revenue of $125.25 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $125.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 2.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Hercules Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.01%. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is currently 79.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hercules Capital

In other Hercules Capital news, CEO Scott Bluestein sold 100,000 shares of Hercules Capital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.59, for a total value of $1,959,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,161,207 shares in the company, valued at $42,338,045.13. The trade was a 4.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on HTGC. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.90.

About Hercules Capital

Hercules Capital, Inc is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing venture debt, debt, senior secured loans, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from startups to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity lower middle market companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies.