Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 9, 2023 10:30 AM ET

Company Participants

John Barry - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Kristin Van Dask - Chief Financial Officer

Grier Eliasek - President & Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Finian O'Shea - Wells Fargo

Sean-Paul Adams - Raymond James

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Prospect Capital First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Release and Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to John Barry, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.

John Barry

Thank you, MJ. Joining me on the call today are Grier Eliasek, our President and COO; and Kristin Van Dask, our Chief Financial Officer. Kristin?

Kristin Van Dask

Thanks, John. This call contains forward-looking statements that are not intended to be subject to safe harbor protection. Future results are highly likely to vary materially. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements. For additional disclosure, see our earnings press release and 10-Q filed previously and available on our website prospectstreet.com.

Now, I'll turn the call back over to John.

John Barry

Thank you, Kristin. In the September quarter, our net investment income or NII was $125.6 million or basic NII of $0.25 per common share, exceeding our distribution rate per common share by $0.07. Our basic NII coverage of our common distribution is now 139%.

Our annualized basic NII yield is 10.8% on a book basis and 18.7% based on our November 7 stock price close. Our NAV stood at $9.25 per common share in September, up $0.01 or 0.1% from the prior quarter. Since inception in 2004, Prospect has invested $20.4 billion across 419 investments, exiting 283 of these investments.

We have outperformed our peers during past periods of macro volatility as a direct result of our previous derisking, not chasing leverage, as well as other risk management controls including avoidance of cyclical industries and utilization of longer-dated and unsecured flexible financing. We are staying true to the strategy that has served us well since 1988, controlling and reducing portfolio and balance sheet risk both to protect the capital entrusted to us and to protect the ability of such capital to generate earnings for our shareholders.

In the September quarter, our net debt-to-equity ratio was 46.5%, down 27.6 percentage points from March 2020 and down 2.3 percentage points from the June 2023 quarter as we continue to run an underleveraged balance sheet which has been the case for us over multiple quarters and years.