Barings BDC, Inc. (NYSE:BBDC) Short Interest Down 6.9% in September

Barings BDC, Inc. (NYSE:BBDC) saw a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 801,400 shares, a decrease of 6.9% from the September 15th total of 860,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 389,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Barings BDC Stock Performance

Barings BDC stock traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $9.75. The company had a trading volume of 31,729 shares, compared to its average volume of 430,962. Barings BDC has a one year low of $8.55 and a one year high of $10.27. The firm has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a PE ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $9.87 and a 200 day moving average of $9.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.12 and a quick ratio of 0.12.

Barings BDC (NYSE:BBDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $74.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.75 million. Barings BDC had a return on equity of 11.49% and a net margin of 38.32%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Barings BDC will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Barings BDC Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.67%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Barings BDC’s payout ratio is 84.55%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Barings BDC

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in Barings BDC in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $292,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Barings BDC during the 4th quarter valued at $815,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Barings BDC during the 1st quarter valued at $43,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Barings BDC during the 1st quarter worth $519,000. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Barings BDC by 18.5% in the 1st quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 14,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,000 after purchasing an additional 2,195 shares in the last quarter. 44.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Barings BDC from $9.00 to $9.50 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th.

Barings BDC Company Profile

Barings BDC, Inc is a publicly traded, externally managed investment company that has elected to be treated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. It seeks to invest primarily in senior secured loans, first lien debt, unitranche, second lien debt, subordinated debt, equity co-investments and senior secured private debt investments in private middle-market companies that operate across a wide range of industries.