Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.08 EPS

Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.08, Zacks reports. Saratoga Investment had a return on equity of 15.88% and a net margin of 13.64%.

Saratoga Investment Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of SAR stock opened at $24.47 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $337.71 million, a P/E ratio of 15.99 and a beta of 1.33. Saratoga Investment has a fifty-two week low of $21.56 and a fifty-two week high of $26.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Saratoga Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a None dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $1.09 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 11.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. Saratoga Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 193.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on SAR shares. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered shares of Saratoga Investment from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Compass Point boosted their price objective on Saratoga Investment from $24.75 to $26.25 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of Saratoga Investment in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Saratoga Investment from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.42.

About Saratoga Investment

Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies. It structures its investments as debt and equity by investing through first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt, co-investments, select high yield bonds, senior secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and preferred and common equity.