Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. (NYSE:TSLX) Short Interest Update

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. (NYSE:TSLX) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,100,000 shares, a decline of 27.2% from the March 31st total of 1,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 421,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Community Bank N.A. boosted its stake in Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 1,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 105.0% in the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 576.9% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,281 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Sixth Street Specialty Lending during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $65,000. 70.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on TSLX. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.50 target price on shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $21.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.60.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Stock Performance

Shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending stock traded up $0.55 during trading on Friday, hitting $21.68. 473,585 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 354,734. The stock has a market cap of $2.00 billion, a PE ratio of 8.34 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $21.15 and its 200 day moving average is $21.07. Sixth Street Specialty Lending has a 12 month low of $17.31 and a 12 month high of $22.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 1.66.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE:TSLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $119.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $115.18 million. Sixth Street Specialty Lending had a return on equity of 13.67% and a net margin of 50.69%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Sixth Street Specialty Lending will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. This is an increase from Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s payout ratio is 70.77%.

About Sixth Street Specialty Lending

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc (NYSE: TSLX) is a business development company. The fund provides senior secured loans (first-lien, second-lien, and unitranche), unsecured loans, mezzanine debt, and investments in corporate bonds and equity securities and structured products, non-control structured equity, and common equity with a focus on co-investments for organic growth, acquisitions, market or product expansion, restructuring initiatives, recapitalizations, and refinancing.