Runway Growth Finance Corp. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NASDAQ:RWAY)

Runway Growth Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:RWAY) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share on Friday, May 24th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.38%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th.

Runway Growth Finance has a dividend payout ratio of 88.9% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Analysts expect Runway Growth Finance to earn $1.82 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 87.9%.

Runway Growth Finance Stock Performance

Shares of RWAY traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $12.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 291,743 shares, compared to its average volume of 327,406. The company has a market cap of $523.39 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.70. Runway Growth Finance has a 52-week low of $10.47 and a 52-week high of $13.74.

Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.04). Runway Growth Finance had a net margin of 27.00% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The firm had revenue of $39.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.26 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Runway Growth Finance will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Runway Growth Finance

In related news, insider Thomas B. Raterman bought 20,460 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.61 per share, for a total transaction of $237,540.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 179,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,089,393.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Ocm Growth Holdings Llc sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.33, for a total value of $11,330,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,492,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $175,526,263.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Thomas B. Raterman acquired 20,460 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $11.61 per share, with a total value of $237,540.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 179,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,089,393.65. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on RWAY shares. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Runway Growth Finance in a research report on Friday, March 8th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Runway Growth Finance from $15.00 to $13.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 18th. B. Riley lowered shares of Runway Growth Finance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $13.50 in a research report on Friday, March 8th. TheStreet lowered shares of Runway Growth Finance from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Runway Growth Finance from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $13.50 to $12.50 in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.25.

About Runway Growth Finance

Runway Growth Finance Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in senior-secured loans to late stage and growth companies. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the technology, life sciences, healthcare and information services, business services and select consumer services and products sectors.