Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. (NYSE:ECC) to Issue Monthly Dividend of $0.14

Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. (NYSE:ECC) announced a monthly dividend on Thursday, August 14th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a dividend of 0.14 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 25.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th.

Eagle Point Credit has a payout ratio of 178.7% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Eagle Point Credit to earn $1.10 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 152.7%.

Eagle Point Credit Price Performance

NYSE ECC opened at $6.70 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $515.55 million, a PE ratio of 60.91 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $7.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.80. Eagle Point Credit has a 12-month low of $6.00 and a 12-month high of $10.06.

Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The investment management company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $52.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.54 million. Eagle Point Credit had a net margin of 6.73% and a return on equity of 13.49%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Eagle Point Credit will post 1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ECC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Eagle Point Credit from $9.00 to $7.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Eagle Point Credit to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $7.50 price objective on shares of Eagle Point Credit in a research note on Thursday, May 29th.

About Eagle Point Credit

Eagle Point Credit Company Inc is a closed ended fund launched and managed by Eagle Point Credit Management LLC. It invests in fixed income markets of the United States. The fund invests equity and junior debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations consisting primarily of below investment grade U.S.