Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Aug 11, 2026
Fidus Investment Corp (FDUS)
A forensic read on Fidus Investment Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
9.4
P / E (ttm)
11.1%
ROE
$751M
Market cap
8.36%
Dividend yield
12.8%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Fidus Investment Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
-1.34×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, operating cash flow was -1.34× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
+20.6%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +20.6% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. This is the fourth straight fiscal year of building accruals — an even longer streak than the 3-year mark that already signals a materially stronger tell. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 19% of net operating assets.
+13.2%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +45% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+13.2%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~13.2% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2022 has been diluted ~31%.
Key fundamentals
Return on Equity11.1%
Debt / Equity0.89x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Fidus Investment Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?