In a report released yesterday, Chris Kotowski from Oppenheimer maintained a Buy rating on Stellus Capital (SCM), with a price target of $15. The company’s shares closed yesterday at $14.55.
Kotowski wrote:
“SCM reported 4Q18 net investment income (NII) per share of $0.49, which came in significantly above our $0.37 estimate, albeit with the help of a $1.1M capital gains incentive fee reversal, leading to a core NII/share of $0.42. Additionally, SCM realized $1.1M of previously reserved PIK income in the quarter, which if also backed out, would lead to and still cover the $0.34 dividend. Strong net capital deployments helped grow the investment portfolio, and NAV/share declined only 1.4% 4Q18 volatility, but it is still up 2.0% Y/Y. Management’s outlook highlights continued strong portfolio growth from availability liquidity, which can help drive NII to higher levels to provide a sizable buffer above the current annual dividend run-rate of $1.36.”
According to TipRanks.com, Kotowski is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 10.5% and a 62.3% success rate. Kotowski covers the Financial sector, focusing on stocks such as Apollo Global Management LLC, Fidus Investment Corporation, and Oaktree Capital Group Llc.
Currently, the analyst consensus on Stellus Capital is a Moderate Buy with an average price target of $14.75, implying a 1.4% upside from current levels. In a report released yesterday, Ladenburg also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $14.50 price target.
See today’s analyst top recommended stocks >>
The company has a one-year high of $15.30 and a one-year low of $11.41. Currently, Stellus Capital has an average volume of 118.8K.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 16 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of SCM in relation to earlier this year.
TipRanks has tracked 36,000 company insiders and found that a few of them are better than others when it comes to timing their transactions. See which 3 stocks are most likely to make moves following their insider activities.
Stellus Capital Investment Corp. is an an externally managed, closed-end, non-diversified management investment company that has elected to be regulated as a business development company. It develops company which seeks investment opportunities in middle market companies located in The US and Canada.
