Financial Analysis: Rand Capital (NASDAQ:RAND) vs. Invent Ventures (OTCMKTS:IDEA)

Invent Ventures (OTCMKTS:IDEA) and Rand Capital (NASDAQ:RAND) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Invent Ventures and Rand Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Invent Ventures	0	0	0	0	0.00
Rand Capital	1	0	0	0	1.00

Volatility & Risk

Invent Ventures has a beta of -56.46, indicating that its stock price is 5,746% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rand Capital has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Invent Ventures and Rand Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Invent Ventures	27.92%	N/A	N/A
Rand Capital	-164.74%	7.12%	6.80%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Invent Ventures and Rand Capital”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Invent Ventures	$790,000.00	1.92	$710,000.00	N/A	N/A
Rand Capital	$8.56 million	3.87	$8.83 million	($4.20)	-2.66

Rand Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Invent Ventures.

Summary

Rand Capital beats Invent Ventures on 7 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Rand Capital

Rand Capital Corporation is a business development company specializing in subordinated debt with warrants or preferred equity and venture capital investments. Within private equity, the firm specializing in capital growth and lower middle market investments. Within venture capital, it specializing in early to late-stage private businesses. It does not prefer to invest in real estate sector. It prefers to invest in software, professional services, manufacturing, consumer, healthcare, automotive and public d stocks. It prefers to invest in East or Midwest U.S. operations sectors. It typically invests between $0.75 million and $5 million with initial target size of $1.5 million. It seeks to invest in companies having more than $2 million in revenue or having excess of $1.5 million and up to $5 million in EBITDA. It prefers to be a minority stake and seeks to take a Board seat in its portfolio companies. It typically holds its investments for a period up to five years.