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Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
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Image source: The Motley Fool.Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ETNeed a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.comContinue reading
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
- President — Robert Marcotte
- Chief Financial Officer — Nicole Schaltenbrand
- Chairman — David Gladstone
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TAKEAWAYS
- Interest Income — $23.2 million, a decline of $700,000 or 2.9% sequentially, due to a 40 basis point decrease in weighted average yield to 11.8% as average earning assets increased by $21.7 million or 2.8% over the prior quarter.
- Total Investment Income — $26 million, driven by a $2.2 million increase in dividends and fee income from the prior quarter.
- Net Investment Income — $11.8 million, up $574,000 from last quarter, representing $0.52 per share and covering 116% of cash distributions per common share.
- Net Portfolio Appreciation — $4.2 million, attributed to unrealized appreciation in three substantial portfolio companies undergoing continued scaling.
- Net Asset Value (NAV) per Share — $21.36, up from $21.13, as net assets rose $5.3 million to $483 million at quarter end.
- Leverage — Gross leverage at 91.8% of net assets, with net debt at 92% of NAV; liabilities declined $3 million quarter over quarter primarily from decreased LOC borrowings.
- Portfolio Composition — First lien debt comprised 70% and total debt investments 90% of portfolio cost; healthcare concentration declined, with no software exposures.
- Nonaccrual Investments — Three nonaccruals unchanged, representing $28.8 million cost basis, or 1.6% of debt investments at fair value.
- PIK Income — $1.7 million for the quarter, accounting for 7.4% of interest income.
- Line of Credit (LOC) — $365 million facility with over $150 million available for near-term investments at quarter end.
- Distributions — Monthly distributions of $0.15 per common share set for May and June, implying an annualized run rate of $1.80 per share and yielding approximately 9.4% at a $19.21 common stock price.
- Funding Activity — $44 million in funding last quarter, including three new private equity-backed investments totaling $34 million and $10 million in add-ons; exits and prepayments totaled $46 million, leaving assets largely unchanged for the quarter.
- Post-Quarter Investing — Two additional portfolio company fundings totaling $44 million in senior secured debt have occurred since quarter end.
SUMMARY
The company emphasized that the board will meet in July to determine distributions for the next quarter. Management outlined that closing spreads on new investments last quarter averaged roughly 7%, consistent with prior periods and reflecting limited spread compression. Precision manufacturing was called out as a growth area, with management noting significant inbound demand tied to onshoring and defense sector expansion. The company stated it is prioritizing scaling the capital base over share repurchases, citing a deep opportunity set in the lower middle market. Management highlighted the discipline in underwriting and stability in portfolio spreads amid wider upmarket volatility.
- Marcotte said, “we really don’t see any degradation, and that’s really coming from a couple of things. One, it’s a disciplined approach and an added value approach in the lower middle market.”
- Management noted that recent increases in dividend and fee income were partially driven by a single sizable portfolio dividend distribution and prepayment fees, with the expectation that future dividends may remain episodic.
- Marcotte explained that “nonaccruals went up in fair value is because one of them, in particular, is performing very well. And so we’re optimistic that it will be turned to a cash paying and go off nonaccrual.”
- The company indicated negligible exposure to software and minimal direct impact from rising energy costs within its portfolio.
- Marcotte stated, “I don’t think you’ll likely see us buying shares in. I think we are going to be looking to scale the capital base to capitalize on our market position in the lower middle market.”
- Marcotte summarized competitive positioning by noting, “look at where the BDC equities are trending, look at who the brand names are that are raising the new funds. The only people that are actually accessing the capital markets or accessing funding sources that might compete with us would be the SBICs. And they are, by definition, somewhat constrained in their overall size. And government SBA financing is not exactly cheap these days either. So we find ourselves particularly well positioned to compete with those folks, and we obviously have a scale advantage over them.”
- The company expects continued modest asset growth, stating the investment pipeline should “more than cover any repayments and support our continued modest asset growth.”
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
- PIK Income: “Paid-in-kind” income is non-cash interest that accrues to the principal balance of a loan and is received as additional securities rather than cash.
- First Lien Debt: Debt secured by a first-priority claim on collateral in the event of default, superseding claims on asset proceeds by other creditors.
- Lower Middle Market: Segment of the private investment market targeting smaller companies, typically defined by EBITDA between $3 million and $25 million, and sales between $20 million and $150 million.
- Nonaccrual: Loans or investments no longer generating contractual interest income, typically due to borrower payment default or significant financial distress.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Robert Marcotte: Thank you, Catherine. Good morning, all. I’ll cover the highlights for the quarter and conclude with some comments on our near-term outlook for the company. Beginning with our last quarter’s results. Fundings last quarter totaled $44 million and included 3 new private equity sponsored investments totaling $34 million and $10 million of additional advances to existing portfolio companies. Exits and prepayments declined relative to what we experienced in 2025 and came in at $46 million, so assets were largely unchanged for the quarter. Interest income for the period declined slightly to $23.2 million, with a 30 basis point decline in the average SOFR rates compared to last quarter as our weighted average debt yield was 11.8% for the period.
Other income for the period came in at $2.8 million, which was up $2.2 million from the — on prepayment fees and dividends. Interest and financing costs declined with lower SOFR rates and reduced unused commitment fees. Net management fees rose $875,000, with the lower origination fee credits. However, net interest — net investment income rose $574,000 to $11.8 million for the period. Net portfolio appreciation came in at $4.2 million, largely driven by the unrealized appreciation of 3 of the larger companies in our portfolio, which continued to scale.
With respect to the portfolio, the portfolio growth for the period did not have a material impact on our investment mix or spread profile as first lien debt and total debt investments came in at 70% and 90% of the portfolio cost, respectively. Our healthcare-related industry concentration declined and is expected to fall further in the short term with a pending exits as we do not — and we do not have any existing software-related exposures. As of the end of the quarter, our 3 nonearning debt investments were unchanged with a cost basis of $28.8 million or $13 million or 1.6% of debt investments at fair value.
In addition, our PIK income for the quarter declined to $1.7 million or 7.4% of interest income. Since the end of the quarter, we funded 2 new portfolio companies representing a total of $44 million of senior secured debt. And while earning assets have increased since the end of last quarter, we are expecting a couple of exits in the near term and are actively managing a healthy pipeline of investment opportunities, which should more than cover any repayments and support our continued modest asset growth. The strength of our investment outlook represents a combination of the resilience of the growth opportunities within the lower middle market and add-on financing opportunities within our existing portfolio.
In particular, we’re seeing strong demand for precision manufacturing businesses where customers are looking to move sourcing back to the U.S. or scale in support of building defense-related backlogs. We ended the quarter with a conservative leverage position and net debt at a modest 92% of NAV and expect to continue to leverage our floating rate bank facility to support our floating rate assets thereby mitigating the impact of short-term rate decline. Our current line of credit facility totals $365 million. And as of the end of the quarter, borrowing availability is more than $150 million which is ample to support our near-term investment activities.
And now I’ll turn the call over to Nicole Schaltenbrand, Gladstone Capital’s CFO, to provide some details on the fund’s financial results for the quarter. Nicole?
Nicole Schaltenbrand: Thanks, Bob. Good morning all. During the March quarter, total interest income declined $700,000 or 2.9% to $23.2 million as the average earning assets rose $21.7 million or 2.8% while the weighted average yield on our interest-bearing portfolio declined 40 basis points to 11.8% for the period. Total investment income was $26 million as dividends and fee income rose $2.2 million from the prior quarter. Total expenses rose $900,000 or 6.8%, driven primarily by $900,000 of higher net management fees due to higher average assets and lower closing fee credits versus the prior quarter. Net investment income for the quarter rose $11.8 million or $0.52 per share or 116% of cash distributions per common share.
The net increase in net assets resulting from operations was $15.5 million, or $0.68 per share for the quarter ended March 31 as impacted by the valuation appreciation mentioned by Bob. Moving over to the balance sheet. As of March 31, total assets rose to $925 million, consisting of $907 million in investments at fair value and $18 million in cash and other assets. Liabilities declined $3 million quarter-over-quarter to $442 million as of March 31, with the decrease in LOC borrowings. The remaining balance of our liabilities consist primarily of $149.5 million of [indiscernible] convertible debt due 2030, $50 million of 3.75% notes due May 2027 and $35 million of 6.25% of perpetual preferred stock.
As of March 31, net assets rose $5.3 million to $483 million, and NAV per share rose from $21.13 to $21.36. Our gross leverage as of March 31 rose to 91.8% of net assets. Monthly distributions for May and June will be $0.15 per common share, which is an annual run rate of $1.80 per share. The Board will meet in July to determine the monthly distributions to common stockholders for the following quarter. At the current distribution rate for our common stock and with a common stock price at about $19.21 per share yesterday, the distribution run rate is now producing a yield of about 9.4%. And now I’ll turn it back to Bob to conclude.
Robert Marcotte: Thank you, Nicole. In sum, it was another solid quarter for Gladstone Capital. The team continued to deliver strong earnings performance bolstered by prepayment fees and portfolio distributions which more than cover the current shareholder dividends. The team is doing a good job managing the portfolio, sourcing attractive private equity-backed lower middle market investment opportunities. The company is also in a very strong balance sheet position with ample borrowing capacity to prudently grow our investment portfolio and deliver the earnings to support our shareholder dividends and now we will — operator tell our callers how to submit their questions. .
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Erik Zwick with Lucid Capital Markets.
Erik Zwick: I wanted to start with a question, just thinking a little bit about the future path of the portfolio yield. If the Fed funds futures curve is right, there shouldn’t be — market is not expecting any changes. So base rate should be more stable. But wondering if you could talk a little bit about the spreads that you saw for your April activity as well as what’s in the pipeline and how those compare to the weighted average spread for the existing portfolio?
Robert Marcotte: Thank you, Erik. Good question. The activity on the quarter, we really didn’t see any compression in spreads what we were closing essentially is on par with our prior quarters. So we really don’t see any degradation, and that’s really coming from a couple of things. One, it’s a disciplined approach and an added value approach in the lower middle market. We’ve never seen quite the same competition as upmarket transactions. Obviously, in the last quarter, there’s also been a bit of a selloff with spreads backing up upmarket from us. And so we’ve seen less competitive pressure from larger transactions, which are probably backed up 50 to 75 basis points.
So we really don’t see, at the moment, much in the way of degradation on the outlook. So with closing spreads in the range of roughly 7% on average last quarter, I wouldn’t expect much to impact there. We do have some impact as companies get larger, there is some trade-off, but for the most part, it’s pretty stable. The other thing is I do expect that we will be funding add-ons to existing portfolio companies in the next quarter, which tend to be consistent with the existing spreads on those transactions. So I think you’re correct that in the near term, the pressure on margins are going to be fairly limited.
When we originally reset the dividend, we were anticipating a curve where we might have 2 or 3 rate reductions over the course of 2026. Obviously, that’s not happening. And the combination of lower upmarket pressure is part of that process, which is one of the reasons why we feel pretty confident in where we stand today with respect to dividend coverage.
Erik Zwick: That’s great. And good to hear. Looking at just the dividend income in the most recent quarter, it was up quarter-over-quarter. I’m curious if that was driven by kind of one large dividend or if there were multiple companies that contributed to it, whether you view those more as kind of onetime or if they’ll be recurring?
Robert Marcotte: There are really 2 components of the income. One was the prepayment fee which we broadcast at the end of last call, last quarter. The second one was a fairly large dividend, a single transaction of a company that had been scaling and we owned a slug of the business. I would expect that there may be some additional distributions coming, but they do tend to be onetime events. So I think we do have some companies that are deleveraging that are performing well. And if the private equity sponsor feels so compelled and there aren’t good acquisition opportunities, distributions is something that they will look to do.
We should expect that we’ll see more of those in the future, but I would not — I would continue to characterize them as onetime events, but we are monitoring that and expect some of that to be realized over the course of 2026.
Erik Zwick: And last one for me. I know you addressed this a little bit last quarter, but just your thoughts on kind of repurchasing shares at this point, whether you view that as a good use of capital, certainly, the stock has come back a little bit from the lows a couple of months ago, but trading at a 10% discount to NAV today, curious how you view that opportunity.
Robert Marcotte: Erik, we are seeing tremendous opportunities to continue to execute our plan and strategy. And based upon where that returns are being generated, scale is important. So I don’t think you’ll likely see us buying shares in. I think we are going to be looking to scale the capital base to capitalize on our market position in the lower middle market. The long-term returns on our portfolio have been pretty good. We think it’s best interest of the shareholders to continue to scale that opportunity and this is, frankly, a good time. Turmoil, the uncertainty and the issues in the marketplace provide a nice window for us to continue to execute against our long-term strategy.
We’ve been doing this for 25 years. I think the idea is we can continue to grow it and produce good returns for our shareholders.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Christopher Nolan with Ladenburg Thalmann.
Christopher Nolan: Bob, congratulations on the promotion. And please pass our best wishes to David Gladstone. On the nonaccruals, it stepped up a little bit and your asset quality is good. Can you share with us some observations you’re seeing in the market? I mean is higher fuel prices just generally creating increased stress in lower middle market, middle markets? Is it less sponsor support? Because I’m seeing increased nonaccruals across multiple BDCs, incrementally, nothing huge yet, but I’d like to get a little broader perspective, if possible.
Robert Marcotte: Sure. The only reason that our nonaccruals went up in fair value is because one of them, in particular, is performing very well. And so we’re optimistic that it will be turned to a cash paying and go off nonaccrual. It’s been a while for that Xcel situation to turn around, but we’re feeling very good about it, given where it’s executed. So it’s not bad that it went up. It’s actually good in a weird way. In terms of your specific question around energy, we don’t tend to have a lot of energy-related businesses or energy-impacted businesses. I will say that we do have businesses that might provide services and there are energy costs in delivering their products.
And certainly, the delivery companies, the FedExs of the world, were very quick in adjusting their rates. And so passing through surcharges has been something that I think we’ve encouraged and our portfolio companies have been pretty adamant on and that’s really been kind of a neutral event. It’s not necessarily negatively affected their business, and it’s well understood cost of doing business. In terms of other energy-related matters, I would say we’re seeing a little bit of slowing or uncertainty as we’ve said in the past we do have 1 or 2 investments that are related to the auto market. And energy and auto is a little bit up in the air right now.
Certainly, whether it’s electric vehicles or whether it’s transitioning model years or general auto sales, they’re soft. So we are closely monitoring some of those. We feel the business is on the right programs, but the volume in that market is relatively soft. Beyond that, obviously, one of the benefits is we have zero software. So some of I think what you’re seeing is just momentum and decision-making in the software side of things. I don’t think anybody is making any fast moves to grow the revenue or to expand their software investments at the moment. I think we’re all pretty impressed at the relatively low cost and incredibly efficient AI-related tools that we’re all toying with.
So I think that’s affecting a significant number of others, and we really don’t have that exposure. So right now, I would generally say we don’t see a ton of slowing. We don’t see much in the way of direct impact of energy. I would almost argue it’s the other way around because we do have some precision manufacturing businesses. They are seeing huge inbound order requests and frankly, we’re being asked to fund capital expenditures to grow those businesses. So we kind of feeling like it’s a decent opportunity for us if we’re close to our businesses to take share and scale some of our opportunities.
Christopher Nolan: And just as a follow-up, in general, are you seeing private equity sponsors being a little bit more hesitant in general or any equity providers or is it just sort of pretty stable?
Robert Marcotte: I definitely think that private equity sponsors are being very diligent. Deals are not closing at the same pace. I think there’s a lot of making sure the numbers are real, and there’s no ambiguities. I think there’s a fair bit of being cautious. But most of the businesses that we see, it’s really about the long-term growth, not the financial structure, not the financial timing. Most of the lower middle market businesses on average are trading plus or minus 7x on EBITDA. That is a business that you can buy and grow and absorb some variability and headwinds and still make good money.
If you’re trading a large-scale business at 9.5, 10, 12x, you don’t have the cushion to be able to absorb that. So I suspect you’re seeing much more caution upmarket because the window of growth and equity appreciation is far narrower and the exit multiple that you can get to is going to be harder to achieve. For us. the idea of trading at that lower multiple in the lower middle market, you’ve already got 2 to 2.5 turns of potential appreciation just from scaling the business. And that drove one of — a couple of our marks on the quarter.
When we go into a business and trades at a lower multiple, and next thing you know it’s $25 million or $30 million of EBITDA and the multiple for those businesses is 2 to 3 turns higher that’s a natural appreciation that we as well as the private equity sponsors are able to achieve. So I guess it’s just a much more forgiving entry point that is part of the process as long as the numbers are solid. Sorry to take so much on it, but that’s a fundamental value to the lower middle market.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Robert Dodd with Raymond James.
Robert Dodd: Yes, congratulations, Bob. Just kind of sticking with that point, I mean, the color on strong demand from precision manufacturing, I mean, it sounds for me saying that’s primarily for add-ons to those already in your portfolio. And then if we step back, I mean, to your point, the upper market valuations are tighter, spreads seem to be showing maybe — not just precision manufacturing maybe widening, certainly widening in software, but you don’t have any of that. .
But to your point, is — are you starting to see any spread expansion in your end of the market, I mean I would think if something like precision manufacturing, where the demand dynamics, like you say, onshore defense et cetera, are so good. But might be increasingly crowded from a competitive perspective for new deals, right? Obviously, the ones you already have. I mean, so do you think those markets that you’re in are going to be more resistant spread expansion even if it moves in the upper market? Or any thought on how the pricing for those kind of — the kind of businesses you do might evolve even if the upper market moves on a pricing front.
Robert Marcotte: I would not expect spread to be widening in our market. Just for broad strokes, the upper markets were dipping down sub-5 over LIBOR and that ROE at the leverage point was starting to get tight. The fact that the funding costs have backed up has probably pushed those spreads up to 5.5% or 5.75% or something like that. We’ve always been, let’s say, mid-6s and I don’t think that I would expect that to expand much. It’s more of a relative play at 150 basis point spread to a upper market deal, the sponsor is going to say you’re way too expensive.
I’d rather continue to shop it at a 50 to 75 basis point spread, they’re not going to say it’s not worth my time given the size of the transaction. So I think we will see less competitive spread pressure because the sponsors understand smaller deals are going to be more expensive and on a relative basis. I think the other point that I would make is, once these large platforms are as large as they are, it’s very hard to go back down market, right? Once you’re as big as you are, and there’s not a ton of capital coming into the lower middle market.
I mean, look at where the BDC equities are trending, look at who the brand names are that are raising the new funds. The only people that are actually accessing the capital markets or accessing funding sources that might compete with us would be the SBICs. And they are, by definition, somewhat constrained in their overall size. And government SBA financing is not exactly cheap these days either. So we find ourselves particularly well positioned to compete with those folks, and we obviously have a scale advantage over them.
So I don’t think it goes down, but I think the pressure is less and the opportunities are going to be as — continue to be relatively positive for us to see modest asset growth within our desired balance sheet leverage constraints.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Sean-Paul Adams with B. Riley.
Sean-Paul Adams: It looks like the quarter was quite solid. Nonaccruals kind of went up in fair value, but it looks like they could be on the decline. So those legacy 3 positions might go down to 2. You guys experienced NAV accretion in a quarter where there’s just been a wave of NAV losses. And the zero software exposure usually means materially less impact to this widespread market repricing. You talked a little bit about spreads. And besides potentially that auto exposure, is there just any concern about just future declines in net origination volume potentially from any other partners trying to come downstream and operate in this lower middle market segment.
Robert Marcotte: Sean-Paul, it’s hard. I think I would make 2 observations. One, we spend a lot of time focusing on the underlying businesses. What’s the long-term growth story? What’s the market position. We don’t look at these as financial transactions, we look at these as businesses, what is the organic growth of this company and what’s the ability of the sponsor and our ability to support and be a partner in growth of the business. . It’s a very different view in looking at the business than a financial transaction that somebody is looking to invest their capital and it’s a spread and a leverage decision that they make when they buy that paper.
That’s a different mindset, and we’ve always had that business orientation and focus and that’s where we align ourselves with the underlying sponsor. I think that’s relatively unique. And the larger transactions, the larger funds, it’s about putting money out and scaling and taking advantage of the opportunity, not necessarily as focused on the underlying business. So you add the fact that it’s a lot more efficient to raise capital in $1 billion increments, I mean what’s the math? Last year, in 2025, more than 90% of the private capital raised were in funds bigger than $1 billion. $1 billion fund is not going to come down market to compete with us. It just — it doesn’t make economic sense.
They can’t put out the money fast enough to be able to achieve their investment opportunities. We may see — we have — there are plenty of guys out there that are in our ZIP code. It’s 4 or 5 folks, but we’re also talking about a market that’s broad and deep. And if we’re looking at [indiscernible] deals a year and all we need to do is 20, that’s a good flow of opportunities that we can cherry-pick to make our investments. I don’t think the big guys think that way.
They think about they need to get a certain percentage share, they need to get a certain investment, they need to make a certain investment scale and they’re going to continue to stay up market. I think it’s going to be very difficult for them to come down market and think and focus on the lower middle market the way we are. Thank you, all. I appreciate the time. Do you want to wrap it?
David Gladstone: We’re going to take a minute. This is David Gladstone. [indiscernible] maybe poor. Accident in our area, so it kind of clogged up everything. There is no accident at this company. It’s very straightforward. We’ve watched all the private lending companies go over to the high technology area and God bless them. I hope they make it. We’re just going to continue to do what we’ve done for the last 20 years, and that is look at solid small businesses and midsized businesses and finance them where they need it. So since there are no other questions, we’ll see you next quarter. That’s the end of this call.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today’s teleconference. Please disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.
