PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $9.80.

Several brokerages have issued reports on PFLT. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $10.50 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Citizens Jmp dropped their target price on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Maxim Group set a $10.50 target price on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th.

Insider Activity at PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

In other PennantPark Floating Rate Capital news, CFO Richard T. Allorto, Jr. acquired 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $8.15 per share, for a total transaction of $122,250.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer owned 25,000 shares in the company, valued at $203,750. The trade was a 150.00% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Jose A. Briones acquired 5,770 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $8.67 per share, with a total value of $50,025.90. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 348,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,017,879.61. The trade was a 1.69% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 6.4% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 4,940,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,576,000 after buying an additional 296,851 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 7.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,533,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,520,000 after buying an additional 174,630 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 42.9% in the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,057,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,290,000 after buying an additional 617,657 shares during the period. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,367,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,676,000 after buying an additional 71,372 shares during the period. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its stake in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 44.1% in the fourth quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 1,320,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,238,000 after buying an additional 404,117 shares during the period. 19.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Price Performance

PFLT stock opened at $8.19 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $8.45 and a 200-day moving average of $8.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital has a 12 month low of $7.68 and a 12 month high of $10.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $812.61 million, a P/E ratio of 13.21 and a beta of 0.78.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). PennantPark Floating Rate Capital had a net margin of 23.08% and a return on equity of 9.95%. The firm had revenue of $44.81 million during the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PennantPark Floating Rate Capital will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.1025 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 15.0%. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital’s payout ratio is presently 198.39%.

About PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. is a business development company. It seeks to make secondary direct, debt, equity, and loan investments. The fund seeks to invest through floating rate loans in private or thinly traded or small market-cap, public middle market companies. It primarily invests in the United States and to a limited extent non-U.S. companies. The fund typically invests between $2 million and $20 million. The fund also invests in equity securities, such as preferred stock, common stock, warrants or options received in connection with debt investments or through direct investments.