Fidus Investment Corporation Stock News

My core strategy focuses on high-quality, durable income streams, which are now benefiting from the current market conditions favoring value/income-based investing. Income investors may finally outperform growth-tilted indices due to macro-level factors muting growth expectations and emphasizing quality and defense. Yet, we have to still be careful of not falling into value traps and securities...

Lower interest rates negatively impact BDCs' net investment income due to the floating rate nature of their loans tied to the Fed Funds rate. A typical BDC portfolio, with a debt to equity ratio of 1.0x, cannot fully offset lower rates through floating leverage. However, there are some ways to manage this situation.

BDC dividend investors, who want to avoid seeing their portfolio current income streams shrink have to be extra careful when picking BDCs. Largely due to unfavorable sector-wide conditions, many BDCs have already cut their dividends (just as I predicted). In my view, there are many more in line.

This is my first BDC portfolio monthly performance review article. The good news is that the portfolio has done its job, outperforming the two BDC benchmarks - PBDC and BIZD. Yet, on an absolute basis, the portfolio is slightly down.

BDCs are meant to provide high-dividends, while preserving NAV. However, given the signs both in the stock market and in the real economy on the ground, BDC investors have to be extra careful. Currently, BDCs face several headwinds, which increase the risk of dividend cuts and price declines, especially within the more speculative and high-multiple segments.

We take a look at the action in business development companies through the second week of March and highlight some of the key themes we are watching. BDCs enjoyed a sharp rally late in the week, but still ended down 2.5%. FSK and MFIC once again delivered below-average results, trading at decent discounts but not enough to justify allocation.

Fidus Investment delivered a 2.8% total NAV return in Q4, outperforming other BDCs in our coverage. Q4 adjusted net income fell to $0.54 due to a drop in SOFR, temporary income dilution from share issuance, and an excise tax charge. FDUS declared a total dividend of $0.54 for Q3, with a managed dividend policy causing potential volatility in total dividends quarter-to-quarter.

We take a look at the action in business development companies through the first week of March and highlight some of the key themes we are watching. BDCs had a tough week despite a strong finish on the back of increased market volatility and worsening risk sentiment. Horizon Tech Finance delivered a negative 3.5% total NAV return in Q4, continuing its trend of underperformance, yet it trades at...