Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,190,000 shares, a decline of 5.3% from the December 15th total of 5,480,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.1 days.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Hercules Capital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

View Our Latest Analysis on HTGC

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 25.6% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 186,835 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $3,821,000 after acquiring an additional 38,131 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 18.9% in the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,393 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $622,000 after acquiring an additional 4,825 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 13.9% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 23,771 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $486,000 after acquiring an additional 2,902 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 1.8% in the second quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 142,679 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,918,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in Hercules Capital in the second quarter valued at approximately $717,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company's stock.

Shares of HTGC stock traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $20.75. 931,423 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 854,137. Hercules Capital has a 1 year low of $16.72 and a 1 year high of $21.78. The stock has a market cap of $3.37 billion, a PE ratio of 10.27 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $19.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.64.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51. The business had revenue of $125.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $125.80 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 65.07%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Hercules Capital will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were given a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.26%. Hercules Capital's dividend payout ratio is currently 79.21%.

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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.

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