Fidus Investment Co. (NASDAQ:FDUS) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Fidus Investment Co. (NASDAQ:FDUS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 212,900 shares, a growth of 33.8% from the October 31st total of 159,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 236,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.9 days. Approximately 0.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Fidus Investment

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fidus Investment by 20.8% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 725,873 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,140,000 after buying an additional 125,011 shares during the period. Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fidus Investment in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,521,000. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fidus Investment by 611.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 71,651 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,414,000 after purchasing an additional 61,580 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Fidus Investment by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 197,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,908,000 after acquiring an additional 58,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fidus Investment in the third quarter valued at approximately $683,000. Institutional investors own 28.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Fidus Investment to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th.

Fidus Investment Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ FDUS opened at $21.29 on Monday. Fidus Investment has a 1-year low of $18.41 and a 1-year high of $21.32. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.79. The company has a market capitalization of $722.16 million, a PE ratio of 7.60 and a beta of 1.40.

Fidus Investment (NASDAQ:FDUS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $38.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.43 million. Fidus Investment had a return on equity of 12.11% and a net margin of 60.09%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Fidus Investment will post 2.28 EPS for the current year.

Fidus Investment Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is a positive change from Fidus Investment’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.46%. Fidus Investment’s payout ratio is currently 61.43%.

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.