Short Interest in Fidus Investment Co. (NASDAQ:FDUS) Declines By 22.2%

Fidus Investment Co. (NASDAQ:FDUS) was the target of a large decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 158,700 shares, a decline of 22.2% from the December 15th total of 204,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 209,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.8 days. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fidus Investment

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fidus Investment by 27.4% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 44,422 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $934,000 after buying an additional 9,559 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fidus Investment in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $274,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fidus Investment by 37.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 116,472 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,269,000 after buying an additional 31,426 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fidus Investment in the third quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, IHT Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fidus Investment by 5.5% in the third quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 54,921 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,076,000 after buying an additional 2,887 shares during the period. 28.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fidus Investment Price Performance

Shares of Fidus Investment stock traded up $0.27 during trading on Thursday, hitting $21.51. 92,073 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 161,429. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $20.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.06. Fidus Investment has a twelve month low of $18.41 and a twelve month high of $21.68. The company has a market cap of $729.62 million, a PE ratio of 7.68 and a beta of 1.39.

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

Fidus Investment Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Fidus Investment’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.34%. Fidus Investment’s payout ratio is currently 61.43%.

Fidus Investment Company Profile

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.