Fidus Investment (NASDAQ:FDUS) and Invent Ventures (OTCMKTS:IDEA) Critical Review

Invent Ventures (OTCMKTS:IDEA) and Fidus Investment (NASDAQ:FDUS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, risk and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Invent Ventures has a beta of -49.7, indicating that its stock price is 5,070% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fidus Investment has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

28.1% of Fidus Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.4% of Invent Ventures shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Fidus Investment shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Invent Ventures and Fidus Investment, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Invent Ventures	0	0	0	0	0.00
Fidus Investment	0	3	0	1	2.50

Fidus Investment has a consensus price target of $21.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.60%. Given Fidus Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Fidus Investment is more favorable than Invent Ventures.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Invent Ventures and Fidus Investment”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Invent Ventures	$740,000.00	3.70	$130,000.00	N/A	N/A
Fidus Investment	$155.87 million	4.80	$82.40 million	$2.28	8.64

Fidus Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Invent Ventures.

Profitability

This table compares Invent Ventures and Fidus Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Invent Ventures	2.14%	N/A	N/A
Fidus Investment	49.51%	11.19%	5.97%

Summary

Fidus Investment beats Invent Ventures on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Invent Ventures

Invent Ventures, Inc., formerly known as Los Angeles Syndicate of Technology, Inc., is venture capital firm specializing in incubation, seed, start ups, growth capital, and early stage investments. The firm prefers to invest in technology companies including web-based software, digital media, mobile applications, social media, consumer internet, online advertising and healthcare technology . It prefers to invest in the Los Angeles area of United States. The firm seeks to invest up to $0.25 million. Invent Ventures, Inc. was founded on August 18, 2005 and is based in Santa Monica, California.

About Fidus Investment

Fidus Investment Corporation is a business development company. It specializing in leveraged buyouts, refinancings, change of ownership transactions, recapitalizations, strategic acquisitions, mezzanine, growth capital, business expansion, lower middle market investments, debt investments, subordinated and second lien loans, senior secured and unitranche debt, preferred equity, warrants, subordinated debt, senior subordinated notes, junior secured loans, and unitranche loans. It does not invest in turnarounds or distressed situations. The fund prefers to invest in aerospace and defense, business services, consumer products and services including retail, food, and beverage, healthcare products and services, industrial products and services, information technology services, niche manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and value-added distribution sectors. It seeks to invest in companies based in United States. The fund typically invests between $5 million and $15 million per transaction in companies with annual revenues between $10 million and $150 million and an annual EBITDA between $3 million and $20 million, but it can occasionally invest in larger or smaller companies. It seeks to acquire minority equity stakes and board observation rights in conjunction with its investments.