Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) Upgraded to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday.

Capital Southwest Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSWC opened at $22.50 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.96 and a beta of 1.24. Capital Southwest has a 52-week low of $20.68 and a 52-week high of $27.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $22.60 and a 200 day moving average of $23.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a current ratio of 0.18.

Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The asset manager reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.01. Capital Southwest had a return on equity of 15.18% and a net margin of 33.49%. On average, research analysts expect that Capital Southwest will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Capital Southwest Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Capital Southwest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 164.54%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Capital Southwest

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSWC. Creative Planning lifted its stake in Capital Southwest by 4.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Capital Southwest in the third quarter worth about $106,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Capital Southwest by 1.3% in the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 98,463 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,490,000 after buying an additional 1,251 shares during the period. Hollencrest Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Capital Southwest by 8.6% in the third quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 6,527 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $165,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Capital Southwest by 4.2% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 102,879 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,602,000 after buying an additional 4,117 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 23.42% of the company’s stock.

About Capital Southwest

Capital Southwest Corporation is a business development company specializing in credit and private equity and venture capital investments in middle market companies, mezzanine, later stage, mature, late venture, emerging growth, buyouts, industry consolidation, recapitalizations and growth capital investments.