Insider Buying: Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) COO Buys 210,000 Shares of Stock

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) COO M Grier Eliasek bought 210,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.81 per share, with a total value of $1,010,100.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,131,130 shares in the company, valued at $10,250,735.30. This represents a 10.93 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

M Grier Eliasek also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, November 26th, M Grier Eliasek acquired 5,000 shares of Prospect Capital stock. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.72 per share, with a total value of $23,600.00.
• On Friday, November 22nd, M Grier Eliasek bought 5,000 shares of Prospect Capital stock. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $4.72 per share, for a total transaction of $23,600.00.
• On Wednesday, November 20th, M Grier Eliasek purchased 5,000 shares of Prospect Capital stock. The shares were purchased at an average price of $4.65 per share, with a total value of $23,250.00.
• On Monday, November 18th, M Grier Eliasek acquired 5,000 shares of Prospect Capital stock. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $4.46 per share, with a total value of $22,300.00.

Prospect Capital Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ PSEC opened at $4.52 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $4.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.26. Prospect Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $4.15 and a 12 month high of $6.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.62 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Prospect Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be issued a $0.045 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $0.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.95%. Prospect Capital’s payout ratio is -207.69%.

Institutional Trading of Prospect Capital

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Prospect Capital by 23.3% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,938,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,376,000 after purchasing an additional 1,690,290 shares during the period. Y.D. More Investments Ltd increased its position in Prospect Capital by 303.6% in the 2nd quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 5,062,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,064,000 after acquiring an additional 3,808,560 shares during the period. XML Financial LLC raised its stake in Prospect Capital by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 2,044,448 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,938,000 after acquiring an additional 153,180 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Prospect Capital by 344.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 933,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,992,000 after acquiring an additional 722,925 shares during the period. Finally, TrueMark Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Prospect Capital in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,107,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 9.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target 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. StockNews.com lowered Prospect Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th.

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.