Hercules Capital (HTGC) Competitors

FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) and Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment and dividends.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, FSV or HTGC?

Hercules Capital has lower revenue, but higher earnings than FirstService. Hercules Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than FirstService, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FirstService	$5.22B	1.55	$134.38M	$2.89	61.66
Hercules Capital	$493.59M	6.61	$262.97M	$1.33	13.99

Do analysts rate FSV or HTGC?

FirstService currently has a consensus target price of $208.40, suggesting a potential upside of 16.94%. Hercules Capital has a consensus target price of $19.92, suggesting a potential upside of 7.02%. Given FirstService's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe FirstService is more favorable than Hercules Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FirstService	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60
Hercules Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Does the media refer more to FSV or HTGC?

In the previous week, Hercules Capital had 12 more articles in the media than FirstService. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Hercules Capital and 4 mentions for FirstService. FirstService's average media sentiment score of 0.78 beat Hercules Capital's score of 0.21 indicating that FirstService is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
FirstService	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Hercules Capital	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is FSV or HTGC a better dividend stock?

FirstService pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Hercules Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.6%. FirstService pays out 38.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hercules Capital pays out 120.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. FirstService has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years and Hercules Capital has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Which has more volatility and risk, FSV or HTGC?

FirstService has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hercules Capital has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of FSV or HTGC?

69.4% of FirstService shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.7% of Hercules Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Hercules Capital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is FSV or HTGC more profitable?

Hercules Capital has a net margin of 45.23% compared to FirstService's net margin of 2.46%. FirstService's return on equity of 17.49% beat Hercules Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FirstService	2.46%	17.49%	4.87%
Hercules Capital	45.23%	16.84%	8.53%

Summary

FirstService beats Hercules Capital on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.