CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Lowers Position in New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lowered its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) by 7.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 77,021 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,864 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned about 0.07% of New Mountain Finance worth $866,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new stake in New Mountain Finance during the third quarter worth about $375,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of New Mountain Finance in the fourth quarter valued at about $208,000. Rockingstone Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 79.1% in the fourth quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC now owns 282,107 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,177,000 after purchasing an additional 124,599 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of New Mountain Finance in the fourth quarter valued at about $944,000. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in shares of New Mountain Finance in the fourth quarter valued at about $309,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 32.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on NMFC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of New Mountain Finance from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday.

Insider Activity at New Mountain Finance

In other news, Director David Ogens bought 5,000 shares of New Mountain Finance stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $11.44 per share, for a total transaction of $57,200.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 179,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,047,988.80. The trade was a 2.87 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

New Mountain Finance Stock Down 1.2 %

NMFC stock opened at $10.11 on Wednesday. New Mountain Finance Co. has a one year low of $8.84 and a one year high of $12.78. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $10.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.63 and a beta of 0.84.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.01). New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 11.25% and a net margin of 30.28%. The business had revenue of $92.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.23 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.66%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 123.08%.

About New Mountain Finance

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.