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Hercules Capital (HTGC) Laps the Stock Market: Here's Why

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Hercules Capital (HTGC - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $20.18, moving +1.51% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.47%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.79%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.28%.

The the stock of specialty finance company has risen by 2% in the past month, leading the Finance sector's loss of 3.28% and undershooting the S&P 500's gain of 3.48%.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Hercules Capital in its upcoming earnings disclosure. On that day, Hercules Capital is projected to report earnings of $0.51 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 1.92%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $125.8 million, showing a 7.76% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.03 per share and revenue of $501.31 million, which would represent changes of -2.4% and +8.82%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Hercules Capital. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. Currently, Hercules Capital is carrying a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

In terms of valuation, Hercules Capital is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.79. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 7.94 of its industry.

The Financial - SBIC & Commercial Industry industry is part of the Finance sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 227, this industry ranks in the bottom 10% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.


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