Hercules Capital (HTGC) Competitors

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

Do analysts prefer HTGC or FSV?

Hercules Capital presently has a consensus target price of $21.40, suggesting a potential upside of 10.05%. FirstService has a consensus target price of $201.67, suggesting a potential upside of 16.15%. Given FirstService's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe FirstService is more favorable than Hercules Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hercules Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
FirstService	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Is HTGC or FSV 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
Hercules Capital	53.28%	17.19%	8.77%
FirstService	2.58%	17.15%	4.79%

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

19.7% of Hercules Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.3% of FirstService shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Hercules Capital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is HTGC or FSV a better dividend stock?

Hercules Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.2%. FirstService pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. 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. FirstService pays out 37.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HTGC or FSV?

Hercules Capital received 144 more outperform votes than FirstService when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.57% of users gave Hercules Capital an outperform vote while only 60.18% of users gave FirstService an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hercules Capital	Outperform Votes 472 64.57%	Underperform Votes 259 35.43%
FirstService	Outperform Votes 328 60.18%	Underperform Votes 217 39.82%

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, HTGC or FSV?

Hercules Capital has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
Hercules Capital	$353.75M	9.52	$262.97M	$1.61	12.08
FirstService	$5.22B	1.51	$134.38M	$2.97	58.46

Does the media favor HTGC or FSV?

In the previous week, Hercules Capital had 1 more articles in the media than FirstService. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Hercules Capital and 8 mentions for FirstService. FirstService's average media sentiment score of 1.29 beat Hercules Capital's score of 1.04 indicating that FirstService is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

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

Which has more risk & volatility, HTGC or FSV?

Hercules Capital has a beta of 1.38, meaning that its stock price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstService has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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