Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC) Short Interest Update

Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC – Get Rating) saw a significant drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 242,500 shares, a drop of 6.8% from the February 13th total of 260,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 316,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.8 days.

Capital Southwest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSWC opened at $17.02 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $588.21 million, a PE ratio of 12.42 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.27. Capital Southwest has a fifty-two week low of $16.28 and a fifty-two week high of $24.40.

Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 31st. The asset manager reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $32.77 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.12 million. Capital Southwest had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 33.53%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Capital Southwest will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Capital Southwest Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This is an increase from Capital Southwest’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.63%. Capital Southwest’s payout ratio is 151.82%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Capital Southwest

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSWC. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Capital Southwest during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Capital Southwest during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Parallel Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Capital Southwest during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Capital Analysts LLC purchased a new position in Capital Southwest during the second quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in Capital Southwest during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $86,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSWC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. B. Riley raised their price objective on Capital Southwest from $20.00 to $21.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Capital Southwest in a research report on Monday. Finally, TheStreet downgraded Capital Southwest from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Monday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.88.

About Capital Southwest

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Capital Southwest is a publicly–owned business development company with total assets of $496 million as of June 30, 2010. We provide patient capital to exceptional businesses with significant growth potential. As a public company, we have the flexibility to hold investments indefinitely, which has provided the management teams of our holdings a stable ownership platform since we were founded in 1961.