Legal & General Group Plc Acquires 84,231 Shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. $PFLT

Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 687,570 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 84,231 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital were worth $6,377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PFLT. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in the second quarter valued at about $41,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in the second quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, CWM LLC raised its position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 37.4% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 2,011 shares during the period. 19.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PFLT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Citizens Jmp dropped their price objective on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Zacks Research lowered shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $10.50 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $9.80.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Stock Performance

PFLT opened at $8.10 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.80. The company has a market capitalization of $803.88 million, a PE ratio of 13.07 and a beta of 0.75. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. has a 1 year low of $7.68 and a 1 year high of $10.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.18 and a quick ratio of 0.18.

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

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.0833 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 12.3%. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital’s payout ratio is 198.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling at PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

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

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Company Profile

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.