Following up on my previous post and references made to it in ensuing ones, all with helpful comments and info:
I just received a call from PSEC (I had left a message on Barry's voice mail). Naturally, no comment on whether they are on course towards the analysts' earnings consensus (.20), but no explanation about possible causes of the price drop either. The letter seems available in paper mail format only, it seems generated by a good office printer. And they do send it out quarterly, I simply hadn't received it till now. The most worrisome statement I found in it is "Our twelve month return for the fiscal year just ended will not easily be repeated in any year." (verbatim). As I remarked to my caller, this is not the kind of message to send out about any company, but especially one that is under pressure for any reason, whether or not expectations are going to be met. With mere weeks to go to the next ER, I got worried; but I am sure others panicked, that is the only explanation I am left with, since the caller didn't provide others. All the worse case scenarios described in the posts following mine seem feasible, I am hoping the one about price drop is grossly pessimistic, and I am staying put hoping for recovery: my entry point is closer to the 52 weeks high, so if I sold now, it would be a matter of just what kind of loss I would incur. Since the fundamentals seem in order, I am biting the bullet (and swelling my liver). Unfortunately, somebody's observation that similar stocks have been affected by market conditions and imponderables, seems optimistic: a similar stock I have been watching, BRG, is up more than 3% today, for no apparent specific reason, while PSEC toed the NASDAQ.
Concerning insiders’ sell offs (though the letter states “We are committed to the long term and never sold a single share”), which I suspected immediately, I am re-thinking the quandary: they are public information that must be filed with the SEC; even options (which in my message I remarked they must be putting) are not made out of thin air, the shares must come from somewhere. If they were insiders’, form 4’s would have to be filed (though I am sure there are workarounds) within 48 hours of transactions.
