Oaktree Specialty Lending (NASDAQ:OCSL) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Oaktree Specialty Lending Co. (NASDAQ:OCSL)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $15.95, but opened at $15.38. Oaktree Specialty Lending shares last traded at $15.49, with a volume of 343,135 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OCSL has been the subject of several recent research reports. B. Riley lowered Oaktree Specialty Lending from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com raised Oaktree Specialty Lending from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Oaktree Specialty Lending from $17.00 to $15.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $15.00 price objective (down from $17.00) on shares of Oaktree Specialty Lending in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, JMP Securities lowered Oaktree Specialty Lending from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oaktree Specialty Lending presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.75.

Oaktree Specialty Lending Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.91 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.19.

Oaktree Specialty Lending (NASDAQ:OCSL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The credit services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. The business had revenue of $86.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $91.93 million. Oaktree Specialty Lending had a net margin of 15.17% and a return on equity of 11.91%. Oaktree Specialty Lending’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Oaktree Specialty Lending Co. will post 2.06 EPS for the current year.

Oaktree Specialty Lending Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. Oaktree Specialty Lending’s payout ratio is 305.56%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Oaktree Specialty Lending

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC bought a new position in Oaktree Specialty Lending during the third quarter worth about $2,849,000. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Oaktree Specialty Lending by 2.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 105,766 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,725,000 after purchasing an additional 2,140 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in Oaktree Specialty Lending by 21.2% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 54,278 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $885,000 after purchasing an additional 9,495 shares during the period. Private Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in Oaktree Specialty Lending by 91.5% during the third quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 1,407,573 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $22,958,000 after purchasing an additional 672,561 shares during the period. Finally, Rivernorth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Oaktree Specialty Lending during the third quarter worth approximately $6,598,000. 36.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Oaktree Specialty Lending Company Profile

Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation is a business development company. The fund specializing in investments in middle market, bridge financing, first and second lien debt financing, unsecured and mezzanine loan, mezzanine debt, senior and junior secured debt, expansions, sponsor-led acquisitions, preferred equity, and management buyouts in small and mid-sized companies.