Great Elm Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:GECC) Short Interest Up 5.1% in May

Great Elm Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:GECC) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,300 shares, an increase of 5.1% from the May 15th total of 11,700 shares. Approximately 0.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 19,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.6 days.

Great Elm Capital Price Performance

Shares of GECC stock traded down $0.25 on Tuesday, hitting $10.08. 26,653 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,062. Great Elm Capital has a 12 month low of $7.54 and a 12 month high of $11.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The company has a 50 day moving average of $10.31 and a 200 day moving average of $10.56. The stock has a market cap of $95.26 million, a P/E ratio of 4.73 and a beta of 1.58.

Great Elm Capital (NASDAQ:GECC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The financial services provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $8.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.14 million. Great Elm Capital had a net margin of 46.02% and a return on equity of 12.63%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Great Elm Capital will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Great Elm Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.89%. Great Elm Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.64%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Great Elm Capital

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cruiser Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Great Elm Capital by 28.8% in the first quarter. Cruiser Capital Advisors LLC now owns 95,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,060,000 after purchasing an additional 21,422 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Great Elm Capital by 99.8% in the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 43,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after acquiring an additional 21,871 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Great Elm Capital by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 27,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $307,000 after acquiring an additional 3,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Great Elm Capital in the fourth quarter worth $127,000. 38.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Great Elm Capital

Great Elm Capital Corp. is a business development company which specializes in loan and mezzanine, middle market investments. It invests in the debt instruments of middle market companies. The fund prefers to invest in media, commercial services and supplies, healthcare, telecommunication services, communications equipment.