Business development company

Prospect Capital Corporation (PSEC)

Prospect Capital Corporation trades as PSEC on NASDAQ. This page collects what it has actually paid — every recorded payment, the calendar-year totals, the forward and trailing 12-month yields side by side against the last price, and the dates already declared.

$2.35 $0.03 (+1.29%)
52-week range $2.11 – $3.13
Business development company NASDAQFinancial ServicesAsset Management

Price as of Aug 25, 2026 (8 hours ago) · supplied by fmp. Quotes may be delayed. Verify with your broker before acting on anything here.

Forward yield 17.87% Last regular payment annualised, divided by the last price. An estimate of the next twelve months — not money that has been paid.
Trailing 12-month yield 21.70% Cash actually paid per share over the last 365 days ($0.5100) divided by the last price. Backward-looking, and not comparable with a bond's yield to maturity or an index yield.
Forward annual payment $0.4200 Forward estimate: the last regular payment multiplied by the number of payments a year. It is an estimate of the next twelve months, not cash that has been paid.
Pays Monthly Cadence of the regular payment, accepted only after three consecutive payments were reported at the same frequency.
Next ex-date Aug 27, 2026 First day the shares trade without the next payment attached.
Next pay date Sep 17, 2026 When the declared payment reaches holders.
Growth streak 0 yr No current run of increases: the most recent complete calendar year did not pay more than the year before it. Our stored payment history for this security begins in 2004.
Years paying 22 Complete calendar years with a payment in our stored history, which begins in 2004. The issuer may have paid for longer than we hold.
Payout ratio 294% Not meaningful for this structure — GAAP earnings do not describe what it pays out.
Income score 40 0-100 research screen, not a recommendation.

The two yields above are different measurements and are not interchangeable. The forward yield annualises the last regular payment; the trailing 12-month yield counts the cash actually paid over the last 365 days. Neither is an interest rate, a bond's yield to maturity or an index effective yield, and none of those may be compared with these as like for like. See how we compute these numbers.

Our stored payment history for PSEC begins in 2004. There is no current run of increases to report: either the most recent complete calendar year did not pay more than the year before it, or there is no earlier complete year in our history to compare it with.

A yield is just a payment divided by a price, so it moves every day even when the payment does not. The forward number is an estimate of the next twelve months; the trailing number is what was actually paid over the last twelve. Ex-date is the cut-off: own the shares before it and the next payment is yours, buy on or after it and the seller keeps it.

What PSEC is

How BDCs work →

Prospect Capital Corporation operates as a Business Development Company (BDC), providing diverse financing solutions predominantly to the middle market. The firm engages in a broad spectrum of investment activities, including growth capital, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, refinancing, and turnaround situations for mature, emerging, and later-stage companies. Its specialized offerings encompass mezzanine financing, subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), cash flow term loans, marketplace lending, and bridge transactions. Beyond corporate finance, Prospect Capital also allocates capital to real estate, with a specific focus on multi-family residential assets. The company deploys a variety of investment instruments, such as secured debt (including senior, unitranche, first-lien, and second-lien), private debt, mezzanine debt, and direct equity, primarily targeting private and microcap public businesses. Its investment strategy involves both primary originations and the acquisition of secondary loan portfolios, supporting situations like private equity-backed financings, corporate expansion, dividend recapitalizations, and real estate ventures. The firm intentionally concentrates on small and medium-sized private companies, rather than large public corporations. Prospect Capital maintains a diversified investment portfolio spanning numerous industries, with notable expertise in the energy and industrial sectors. Its extensive reach covers areas from aerospace and financial services to healthcare, technology, and consumer goods. Geographically, its operations are concentrated within the United States and Canada. Typically, PSEC commits between $10 million and $500 million per transaction. It seeks out companies with an EBITDA between $5 million and $150 million, sales figures ranging from $25 million to $500 million, and an enterprise value between $5 million and $1000 million. The BDC is also open to co-investing in lar

Company description supplied by the issuer and relayed by our market-data provider, not written by Income Investing. See data sources.

PSEC is a business development company — a listed vehicle that lends to, and sometimes takes equity in, private middle-market businesses. It elects regulated-investment-company treatment, which requires it to distribute the large majority of its taxable income each year; that requirement, not a board's generosity, is what produces the high headline yield.

The payment is a distribution rather than interest, and it can include return of capital as well as net investment income and realised gains. Most of it is taxed as ordinary income rather than as qualified dividends. The loan book is valued by the manager, not by a market, so net asset value is an estimate. Read how BDCs work.

Figures on this page are computed by Income Investing from the payment history and last price stored in our own database; the payment records come from fmp and the price from fmp, last recomputed Aug 25, 2026. They describe what has been paid, not what will be paid. Yield, payout ratio, our data sources and our methodology are explained elsewhere on the site.

Payment history

Each row is one payment as recorded by our data provider, newest first. The final column compares it with the nearest payment about a year earlier.

The table lists the 24 most recent recorded dividends for PSEC, newest first, with ex-dates running from Nov 26, 2024 to Oct 28, 2026. The latest is $0.0350 per share in USD, ex-date Oct 28, 2026, pay date Nov 18, 2026. Measured against the nearest payment about a year earlier, 0 are higher, 18 lower and 6 unchanged; the remaining 0 have no comparable payment in the record. None is flagged as a special or one-off payment. Payment records supplied by fmp.

How to read this table: one row is one payment, newest at the top, and the amount is what a single share received on that one date. It is not an annual figure — the yearly ones are in the tiles above and in the totals further down. A row marked Special is a one-off the issuer chose to make rather than part of the regular schedule, which is why it is left out of the year-on-year comparison and out of those yearly totals. Whether the amount repeats for several rows or moves every time is a fact about the structure rather than a sign of health: a company usually resets its dividend once a year, while a fund's distribution can change with every payment.

Recorded payments for PSEC. Amounts are per share as declared, in USD.
Ex-dateOwn it before this day and this payment is yours. Pay date Amount per shareWhat one share received on that date, before tax. Cadence tagged by provider Type vs. a year earlier
Oct 28, 2026 Nov 18, 2026 $0.0350 Monthly Regular -22.22%
Sep 28, 2026 Oct 21, 2026 $0.0350 Monthly Regular -22.22%
Aug 27, 2026 Sep 17, 2026 $0.0350 Monthly Regular -22.22%
Jul 29, 2026 Aug 20, 2026 $0.0350 Monthly Regular -22.22%
Jun 26, 2026 Jul 22, 2026 $0.0350 Monthly Regular -22.22%
May 27, 2026 Jun 18, 2026 $0.0350 Monthly Regular -22.22%
Apr 28, 2026 May 19, 2026 $0.0450 Monthly Regular 0.00%
Mar 27, 2026 Apr 21, 2026 $0.0450 Monthly Regular 0.00%
Feb 25, 2026 Mar 19, 2026 $0.0450 Monthly Regular 0.00%
Jan 28, 2026 Feb 18, 2026 $0.0450 Monthly Regular 0.00%
Dec 29, 2025 Jan 21, 2026 $0.0450 Monthly Regular 0.00%
Nov 25, 2025 Dec 18, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular 0.00%
Oct 29, 2025 Nov 18, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Sep 26, 2025 Oct 22, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Aug 27, 2025 Sep 18, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Jul 29, 2025 Aug 20, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Jun 26, 2025 Jul 22, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
May 28, 2025 Jun 18, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Apr 28, 2025 May 20, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Mar 27, 2025 Apr 17, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Feb 26, 2025 Mar 20, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Jan 29, 2025 Feb 19, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Dec 27, 2024 Jan 22, 2025 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%
Nov 26, 2024 Dec 19, 2024 $0.0450 Monthly Regular -25.00%

The cadence column is the tag our provider attached to that individual payment (fmp), not the security's established schedule. The two can disagree, which is why the cadence shown in the tiles above is only accepted after three consecutive payments were tagged the same way.

A blank comparison means there was no comparable payment within sixty days of the same point a year earlier — a new payer, a changed cadence, or a gap in the record. Special and one-off payments are labelled and are excluded from the comparison.

Dividends by calendar year

Calendar-year totals, bucketed by ex-dividend date: every regular dividend whose ex-dividend date fell in that year, for the last ten complete years on record. These are amounts actually paid, never a forward estimate, and they are not the issuer's own annual dividend figure.

The chart covers 10 complete calendar years for PSEC, 2016 to 2025, per share, in USD. Each bar totals the regular dividends with an ex-dividend date in that calendar year. The year is assigned by ex-dividend date, which is not necessarily the issuer's own dividend year. Our stored payment history for PSEC begins in 2004. The total went from $1.0000 in 2016 to $0.5400 in 2025 — 46% lower. Within that span 0 years were higher than the year before and 5 lower. The three most recent years shown are 2023 $0.7200, 2024 $0.6900 and 2025 $0.5400. The current year is still in progress and is left out, and special or one-off payments are excluded. This is a record of what was paid, not a projection. Every year shown holds the 12 dividends a monthly cadence implies, so no year on this chart is short or long because a payment shifted across a year end.

Each bar, and each row underneath it, is one calendar year of regular payments added together for a single share. Read left to right and you are reading whether the payment has grown, held or been cut — a record of what was paid, never a forecast of what will be. One thing to watch for: a year here is decided by the date the payment went ex, so when that date slips across a year end one year holds an extra payment and its neighbour is one short while the payment itself never moved. Any year where that has happened is drawn as a dashed bar and marked with an asterisk, and it is the usual reason these totals differ from the annual figure the issuer itself publishes.

2016: $1.0000 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 1.00 2016 2017: $0.9066 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.91 2017 2018: $0.7200 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.72 2018 2019: $0.7200 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.72 2019 2020: $0.7200 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.72 2020 2021: $0.7200 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.72 2021 2022: $0.7200 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.72 2022 2023: $0.7200 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.72 2023 2024: $0.6900 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.69 2024 2025: $0.5400 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 0.54 2025
Bar height is the total per share of the regular dividends whose ex-dividend date fell in that calendar year, in USD. The year is assigned by ex-dividend date, not by the issuer's own dividend year and not by the date the cash arrived. These are a trailing record — never the forward estimate shown in the tiles above.
Complete calendar years only, bucketed by ex-dividend date — the current year is still in progress and is left out.
Year Paid per share that yearEvery regular payment dated in that year, added up, for one share. Payments in the yearA count that differs from the usual one means a payment moved across a year end. Change on the year before
2016 $1.00 12 -2.66%
2017 $0.91 12 -9.33%
2018 $0.72 12 -20.59%
2019 $0.72 12 0.00%
2020 $0.72 12 0.00%
2021 $0.72 12 0.00%
2022 $0.72 12 0.00%
2023 $0.72 12 0.00%
2024 $0.69 12 -4.17%
2025 $0.54 12 -21.74%
What can go wrong
A BDC lends to private, unrated, mostly floating-rate borrowers that banks declined. In a downturn those loans go on non-accrual, net asset value falls and the dividend follows. The portfolio is valued by the manager rather than by a market, leverage is used, external management fees are charged on gross assets, and distributions are largely ordinary income rather than qualified dividends.

Similar securities

The eight closest business development company entries by trailing 12-month yield, in the same sector. A research screen, not a recommendation.

Open Private Credit →

These are not the best-paying securities of this kind, and no ranking is meant by the order. They are the ones whose trailing 12-month yield sits nearest to this one, in the same structure and usually the same sector, so that this security can be seen in company rather than on its own. Every figure here is backward-looking cash that has already been paid. A row that sits well away from the rest is a question to take to that security's own page, not an answer.

Ticker Name Price Trailing 12m yieldCash paid out over the last year, over today's price. Paid over 12 months Pays
TCPC BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. $4.18 21.05% $0.88 Quarterly
CION CION Investment Corporation $7.51 20.24% $1.52 Monthly
HRZN Horizon Technology Finance Corporation $4.77 23.27% $1.11 Monthly
RWAY Runway Growth Finance Corp. $6.56 20.12% $1.32 Irregular
OFS OFS Capital Corporation $3.65 23.29% $0.85 Quarterly
FSK FS KKR Capital Corp. $12.05 19.09% $2.30 Quarterly
PNNT PennantPark Investment Corporation $3.81 25.20% $0.96 Monthly
SAR Saratoga Investment Corp. $18.42 17.64% $3.25 Monthly

Every row in this table is on the same basis — cash actually paid per share over the last 365 days, divided by that security's last price — so the column can be read down. Forward estimates are deliberately not used here, because they exist for some securities and not others and a mixed column would invite a comparison that does not hold. A dash means no payment was recorded in the last 365 days, or no price is on file. Open a security to see both of its yields.

Where these are traded

SEC EDGAR

Business development companies file 10-Ks and quarterly schedules of investments here, which is where loan-level marks, non-accruals and PIK income appear.

The schedule of investments is the loan-by-loan detail no summary page carries

Visit SEC EDGAR ↗
Cliffwater

An investment adviser that publishes the Cliffwater Direct Lending Index and runs interval funds holding directly originated corporate loans.

Index methodology and quarterly index reports are public

Visit Cliffwater ↗
Yieldstreet

An alternative-investment platform offering private credit, legal finance and real estate deals, most restricted to accredited investors.

Most offerings have no secondary market and lock capital until the deal repays

Visit Yieldstreet ↗
Percent

A marketplace for private credit transactions, mostly short-duration asset-backed deals, open to accredited investors.

Accredited-investor verification is required before any deal is visible

Visit Percent ↗

Listed because they offer access to this kind of security, not as an endorsement of it.

Questions about PSEC

Does PSEC pay a dividend, and how often?
Yes. The regular payment cadence recorded for PSEC is monthly. The annual figure works out at $0.4200 per share. Forward estimate: the last regular payment multiplied by the number of payments a year. It is an estimate of the next twelve months, not cash that has been paid. The last ex-date in our history is Jul 29, 2026.
What is the yield on PSEC, and is it forward or trailing?
There are two, and they measure different things. The forward yield is 17.87%: the last regular payment annualised to $0.4200 a year and divided by the last price of $2.35. That is an estimate of the next twelve months. The trailing 12-month yield is 21.70%: the $0.5100 per share actually paid over the last 365 days, divided by the same price. Neither number is a bond's yield to maturity, an index effective yield or an interest rate, and none of those should be compared with these as like for like. Yield also moves inversely with price, so it rises when the market marks the security down — a high number is a question, not an answer.
When is the next PSEC ex-dividend date?
The next ex-date recorded for PSEC is Aug 27, 2026, with the payment due Sep 17, 2026. Shares bought on or after the ex-date do not carry that payment; the seller keeps it. Dates are as announced and can change.
Why is there no meaningful payout ratio for PSEC?
A payout ratio compares a dividend to accounting earnings. For a business development company the payment is not funded out of GAAP net income — REITs and BDCs pay out of taxable income under distribution rules, funds pass through whatever the portfolio produced, and partnerships distribute cash flow. Analysts use structure-specific measures instead, such as funds from operations for REITs or net investment income for BDCs.
Has the PSEC payment grown?
Over the complete calendar years in our history, the total went from $1.0000 in 2016 to $0.5400 in 2025. The chart on this page shows every year in between, including any cuts. Those totals bucket each payment by its ex-dividend date, so a year can hold more or fewer payments than the cadence implies when a payment shifts across a year end. Past payment history describes what happened, not what will happen.
How to read this page
Nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation to buy, hold or sell PSEC. Figures are drawn from third-party market data and our own calculations, may be delayed or wrong, and can change without notice. Confirm every number with the issuer and with your own broker, tax adviser and financial adviser before acting.

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