Morse Asset Management Inc Invests $701,000 in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 34,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $701,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Hercules Capital during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. NBC Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Hercules Capital by 154.8% in the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 1,594 shares in the last quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in Hercules Capital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 28.9% during the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,599 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 806 shares during the period. Finally, Security National Bank purchased a new position in Hercules Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $67,000. 19.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HTGC. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. JMP Securities increased their price target on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Hercules Capital from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.00.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

HTGC opened at $19.58 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.90 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a fifty day moving average of $19.46 and a 200 day moving average of $19.32. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.02 and a fifty-two week high of $21.78.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 18.03% and a net margin of 57.82%. The company had revenue of $125.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $124.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.73%.

Insider Activity at Hercules Capital

In other Hercules Capital news, Director Nikos Theodosopoulos acquired 1,608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $18.03 per share, with a total value of $28,992.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 5,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $101,202.39. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.