Hercules Capital (HTGC) Competitors

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

Does the media prefer FSV or HTGC?

In the previous week, FirstService had 6 more articles in the media than Hercules Capital. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for FirstService and 5 mentions for Hercules Capital. Hercules Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.67 beat FirstService's score of 1.04 indicating that Hercules Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
FirstService	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Hercules Capital	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do analysts rate FSV or HTGC?

FirstService presently has a consensus target price of $198.33, suggesting a potential upside of 8.76%. Hercules Capital has a consensus target price of $21.75, suggesting a potential upside of 4.84%. 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)	0 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is FSV or HTGC more profitable?

Hercules Capital has a net margin of 65.07% compared to FirstService's net margin of 2.19%. Hercules Capital's return on equity of 17.88% beat FirstService's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FirstService	2.19%	16.68%	4.65%
Hercules Capital	65.07%	17.88%	9.16%

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

69.3% 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, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor FSV or HTGC?

Hercules Capital received 146 more outperform votes than FirstService when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.61% of users gave Hercules Capital an outperform vote while only 60.07% of users gave FirstService an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
FirstService	Outperform Votes 325 60.07%	Underperform Votes 216 39.93%
Hercules Capital	Outperform Votes 471 64.61%	Underperform Votes 258 35.39%

Which has higher 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	$4.93B	1.67	$100.39M	$2.40	75.98
Hercules Capital	$460.67M	7.32	$337.48M	$2.02	10.27

Which has more risk and volatility, FSV or HTGC?

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

Is FSV or HTGC a better dividend stock?

FirstService pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Hercules Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. FirstService pays out 41.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hercules Capital pays out 79.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

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