Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE:TSLX) Cut to “Neutral” at LADENBURG THALM/SH SH

LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE:TSLX) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on TSLX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $23.00 to $21.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.33.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Price Performance

TSLX stock opened at $22.97 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $21.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.02. Sixth Street Specialty Lending has a 12 month low of $19.50 and a 12 month high of $23.15. The company has a quick ratio of 2.50, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.15 and a beta of 1.06.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE:TSLX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $123.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.07 million. Sixth Street Specialty Lending had a net margin of 39.05% and a return on equity of 13.55%. On average, analysts anticipate that Sixth Street Specialty Lending will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.07 per share. This is an increase from Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 89.32%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sixth Street Specialty Lending

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,393,069 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $50,972,000 after purchasing an additional 103,634 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its position in Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,305,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,104,000 after purchasing an additional 122,312 shares during the last quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. raised its position in Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. now owns 2,252,774 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,249,000 after purchasing an additional 215,996 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,183,141 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,201,000 after purchasing an additional 33,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,175,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,131,000 after purchasing an additional 162,810 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.25% of the company’s stock.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Company Profile

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc (NYSE: TSLX) is a business development company. The fund provides senior secured loans (first-lien, second-lien, and unitranche), unsecured loans, mezzanine debt, and investments in corporate bonds and equity securities and structured products, non-control structured equity, and common equity with a focus on co-investments for organic growth, acquisitions, market or product expansion, restructuring initiatives, recapitalizations, and refinancing.