Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC) was the target of a large growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,200,000 shares, a growth of 94.8% from the October 31st total of 616,100 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 314,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.8 days.

Institutional Trading of Capital Southwest

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Capital Southwest by 146.7% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 387,647 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,804,000 after acquiring an additional 230,513 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Capital Southwest by 25.0% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,059,217 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $27,635,000 after purchasing an additional 211,992 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in Capital Southwest in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,937,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in Capital Southwest by 970.6% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 80,201 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,028,000 after purchasing an additional 72,710 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Capital Southwest during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,775,000. 23.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, B. Riley upped their price objective on Capital Southwest from $24.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Capital Southwest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSWC traded up $0.09 on Thursday, reaching $23.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 227,614 shares, compared to its average volume of 319,590. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.24 and a beta of 1.25. Capital Southwest has a 52-week low of $22.01 and a 52-week high of $27.23.

Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The asset manager reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.01. Capital Southwest had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 37.77%. The company had revenue of $48.71 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.79 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Capital Southwest will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Capital Southwest Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.79%. Capital Southwest’s payout ratio is presently 141.46%.

About Capital Southwest

Capital Southwest Corporation is a business development company specializing in credit and private equity and venture capital investments in middle market companies, mezzanine, later stage, mature, late venture, emerging growth, buyouts, industry consolidation, recapitalizations and growth capital investments.