New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) Short Interest Down 28.9% in February

New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) saw a significant decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 987,800 shares, a decline of 28.9% from the February 13th total of 1,390,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 477,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Ogens bought 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $11.44 per share, for a total transaction of $57,200.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 179,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,047,988.80. This trade represents a 2.87 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 10.22% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of New Mountain Finance

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NMFC. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in New Mountain Finance by 2.7% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,823,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,811,000 after acquiring an additional 100,315 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,376,702 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,438,000 after purchasing an additional 237,594 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,342,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,378,000 after purchasing an additional 93,329 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of New Mountain Finance by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,258,842 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,081,000 after purchasing an additional 15,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 1,929.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 985,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,101,000 after buying an additional 937,331 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 32.08% of the company’s stock.

New Mountain Finance Price Performance

Shares of NMFC stock traded up $0.05 on Tuesday, reaching $10.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 173,974 shares, compared to its average volume of 427,814. The company has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.46 and a beta of 1.16. New Mountain Finance has a 12-month low of $10.62 and a 12-month high of $12.81. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.59. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.01). New Mountain Finance had a net margin of 30.28% and a return on equity of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $92.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.23 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that New Mountain Finance will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

New Mountain Finance Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.65%. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 123.08%.

About New Mountain Finance

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.