Hercules Capital (HTGC) Competitors

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

Is FSV or HTGC more profitable?

Hercules Capital has a net margin of 53.28% compared to FirstService's net margin of 2.58%. Hercules Capital's return on equity of 17.19% beat FirstService's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FirstService	2.58%	17.15%	4.79%
Hercules Capital	53.28%	17.19%	8.77%

Is FSV or HTGC a better dividend stock?

FirstService pays an annual dividend of $1.00 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 7.4%. FirstService pays out 33.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hercules Capital pays out 99.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Do analysts prefer FSV or HTGC?

FirstService currently has a consensus price target of $201.67, indicating a potential upside of 15.49%. Hercules Capital has a consensus price target of $21.40, indicating a potential downside of 0.44%. Given FirstService's higher possible upside, 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)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Hercules Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80

Which has more volatility and risk, FSV or HTGC?

FirstService has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hercules Capital has a beta of 1.35, indicating that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer FSV or HTGC?

In the previous week, Hercules Capital had 9 more articles in the media than FirstService. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Hercules Capital and 6 mentions for FirstService. FirstService's average media sentiment score of 1.73 beat Hercules Capital's score of 0.58 indicating that FirstService is being referred to more favorably in the media.

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

Does the MarketBeat Community favor FSV or HTGC?

Hercules Capital received 145 more outperform votes than FirstService when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.57% of users gave Hercules Capital an outperform vote while only 60.22% of users gave FirstService an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
FirstService	Outperform Votes 327 60.22%	Underperform Votes 216 39.78%
Hercules Capital	Outperform Votes 472 64.57%	Underperform Votes 259 35.43%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in 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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has better earnings and 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	1.52	$134.38M	$2.97	58.79
Hercules Capital	$493.59M	7.54	$262.97M	$1.61	13.35

Summary

Hercules Capital beats FirstService on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.