Contrasting Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) & Invent Ventures (OTCMKTS:IDEA)

Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) and Invent Ventures (OTCMKTS:IDEA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Saratoga Investment and Invent Ventures, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Saratoga Investment	0	5	0	0	2.00
Invent Ventures	0	0	0	0	0.00

Saratoga Investment currently has a consensus target price of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.08%. Given Saratoga Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Saratoga Investment is more favorable than Invent Ventures.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

19.1% of Saratoga Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.0% of Saratoga Investment shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.4% of Invent Ventures shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Saratoga Investment and Invent Ventures”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Saratoga Investment	$125.71 million	2.86	$36.60 million	$2.33	9.48
Invent Ventures	$740,000.00	3.80	$130,000.00	N/A	N/A

Saratoga Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Invent Ventures.

Profitability

This table compares Saratoga Investment and Invent Ventures’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Saratoga Investment	29.12%	9.29%	3.17%
Invent Ventures	2.14%	N/A	N/A

Risk and Volatility

Saratoga Investment has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Invent Ventures has a beta of -50.42, meaning that its stock price is 5,142% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Saratoga Investment beats Invent Ventures on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Saratoga Investment

Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies. It structures its investments as debt and equity by investing through first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt, co-investments, select high yield bonds, senior secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and preferred and common equity. The firm prefers to invest in aerospace, automotive aftermarket and services, business products and services, consumer products and services, education, environmental services, industrial services, financial services, food and beverage, healthcare products and services, logistics, distribution, manufacturing, restaurants services, food services, software services, technology services, specialty chemical, media and telecommunications. It seeks to invest in the United States. The firm primarily invests $5 million to $50 million in companies having EBITDA of $2 million or greater and revenues of $8 million to $250 million. The firm prefer to take a majority stake. It invests through direct lending as well as participation in loan syndicates. The firm was formerly known as GSC Investment Corp. Saratoga Investment Corp. was formed on 2007 and is based in New York, New York with an additional office in Florham Park, New Jersey.

About Invent Ventures

Invent Ventures, Inc., formerly known as Los Angeles Syndicate of Technology, Inc., is venture capital firm specializing in incubation, seed, start ups, growth capital, and early stage investments. The firm prefers to invest in technology companies including web-based software, digital media, mobile applications, social media, consumer internet, online advertising and healthcare technology . It prefers to invest in the Los Angeles area of United States. The firm seeks to invest up to $0.25 million. Invent Ventures, Inc. was founded on August 18, 2005 and is based in Santa Monica, California.