Insider Buying: New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) Director Acquires 72,280 Shares of Stock

New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) Director Steven B. Klinsky bought 72,280 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $11.28 per share, for a total transaction of $815,318.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 4,285,505 shares in the company, valued at $48,340,496.40. This trade represents a 1.72 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

New Mountain Finance Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of New Mountain Finance stock opened at $11.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.97. New Mountain Finance Co. has a 1 year low of $10.61 and a 1 year high of $13.10. The company has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 1.15.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $95.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.10 million. New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 11.25% and a net margin of 30.28%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. Research analysts forecast that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a $0.33 dividend. This is an increase from New Mountain Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.71%. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 121.91%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On New Mountain Finance

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NMFC. Quarry LP grew its holdings in New Mountain Finance by 68.3% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,307 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 1,342 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of New Mountain Finance by 14.3% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 14,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 1,860 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in shares of New Mountain Finance in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its position in New Mountain Finance by 0.7% during the third quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 325,365 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,898,000 after acquiring an additional 2,389 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in New Mountain Finance by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 47,138 shares of the company’s stock worth $565,000 after purchasing an additional 2,389 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 32.08% of the company’s stock.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

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.