JPMorgan Chase & Co. Purchases New Position in Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 5,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $116,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SAR. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Saratoga Investment by 2,268.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 112,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,603,000 after purchasing an additional 107,499 shares in the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Saratoga Investment during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,450,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Saratoga Investment by 14.4% in the third quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 138,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 17,379 shares in the last quarter. PVG Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in Saratoga Investment in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $236,000. Finally, Next Level Private LLC lifted its stake in Saratoga Investment by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Next Level Private LLC now owns 39,154 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $908,000 after purchasing an additional 6,619 shares in the last quarter. 19.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SAR. StockNews.com upgraded Saratoga Investment from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 26th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut shares of Saratoga Investment from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. B. Riley restated a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of Saratoga Investment in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Compass Point decreased their price objective on Saratoga Investment from $26.25 to $25.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Saratoga Investment from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.08.

Saratoga Investment Price Performance

Shares of Saratoga Investment stock opened at $24.99 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.90. Saratoga Investment Corp. has a one year low of $21.56 and a one year high of $26.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.33 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $358.43 million, a P/E ratio of 10.07 and a beta of 1.33.

Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.08. Saratoga Investment had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 22.01%. Analysts forecast that Saratoga Investment Corp. will post 3.93 EPS for the current year.

Saratoga Investment Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a None dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a $1.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 11.9%. Saratoga Investment’s dividend payout ratio is 119.35%.

About Saratoga Investment

Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies. It structures its investments as debt and equity by investing through first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt, co-investments, select high yield bonds, senior secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and preferred and common equity.