Oppenheimer Initiates Coverage On Fidus Investment Corp

Oppenheimer & Co. is initiating coverage on Fidus Investment Corp

with an Outperform rating and a $15 price target. In a note to clients, Oppenheimer & Co. writes, "We are initiating coverage on Fidus, a business development corporation (

) with a focus on middle-market mezzanine debt, with an Outperform rating as we expect a roughly 30% total return in the year ahead. That is based on an ~10.5% current yield plus an appreciation to the average valuation range of the BDC universe. After completing its IPO on June 20, Fidus posted its first quarterly earnings report as a public company last week with $0.36/share in net investment income and a $0.32 dividend. Since Fidus is flush with more than $70M of IPO cash that should be deployed over the next year or so, that NII and dividend should grow significantly." Shares of FDUS closed at $13.01 yesterday.