Head to Head Analysis: TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC (NYSE:TPVG) and CION Investment (NYSE:CION)

CION Investment (NYSE:CION) and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC (NYSE:TPVG) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Dividends

CION Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.9%. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 17.0%. CION Investment pays out -757.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC pays out 88.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CION Investment has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Risk & Volatility

CION Investment has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC has a beta of 1.47, suggesting that its stock price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

32.0% of CION Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.8% of TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of CION Investment shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares CION Investment and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CION Investment	-4.57%	9.63%	4.00%
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	42.16%	13.78%	6.32%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CION Investment and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CION Investment	$1.66 million	284.58	$33.90 million	($0.19)	-47.76
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	$108.65 million	2.00	$32.05 million	$1.04	5.19

CION Investment has higher earnings, but lower revenue than TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC. CION Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for CION Investment and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CION Investment	1	2	0	0	1.67
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	1	6	0	0	1.86

CION Investment presently has a consensus price target of $8.50, indicating a potential downside of 6.34%. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC has a consensus price target of $6.25, indicating a potential upside of 15.74%. Given TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC is more favorable than CION Investment.

Summary

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC beats CION Investment on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CION Investment

CION Investment Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in investments in senior secured loans, including unitranche loans, First Lien, second lien loans, long-term subordinated loans, and mezzanine loans; equity interests such as warrants or options; and corporate bonds; and other debt securities in middle-market companies. The firm invests in growth capital, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, market/product expansion, refinancing and recapitalization. The fund also invests up to 30 percent of their assets opportunistically in other types of investments, including the securities of larger public companies and foreign securities. It also makes investments in the secondary loan market. The fund does not invest in start-up companies, turnaround situations, or companies with speculative business plans. The fund prefers to invest in high tech industries, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, business services, media, chemicals, plastic, rubber, telecommunication, consumer services, advertising, printing and publishing, consumer goods, durables, diversified financials, and other industries. It also invests in homebuilding, restaurants, beverage and tobacco bars, broadcasting, distributors, Non-durable good distribution, food beverage and tobacco, energy, oil gas and consumables fuels, insurance, aerospace and defense, industrial machinery, paper and forest product machinery, information technology, metals and mining, and real estate. It primarily seeks to invest in the United States. The fund seeks to invest between $5 million and $50 million in companies with an EBITDA between $25 million and $75 million with average targeted hold of $25 million. It also purchases minority interests in the form of common or preferred equity in the target companies, typically in conjunction with its debt investments or through a co-investment with a financial sponsor. The fund seeks to exit its investments through an initial public offering of common stock, a merger, a sale, or other recapitalization.

About TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in venture capital-backed companies at the growth stage investments. It also provides debt financing to venture growth space companies which includes growth capital loans, secured and customized loans, equipment financings, revolving loans and direct equity investments. The fund seeks to invest in e-commerce, entertainment, technology and life sciences sector. Within technology the areas of focus include: Security, wireless communication equipments, network system and software, business applications software, conferencing equipments/services .big data, cloud computing, data storage, electronics, energy efficiency, hardware, information services, internet and media, networking, semiconductors, software, software as a service, and other technology related subsectors and within life sciences the areas of focus include: biotechnology, bio fuels/bio mass, diagnostic testing and bioinformatics, drug delivery, drug discovery, healthcare information systems, healthcare services, medical, surgical and therapeutic devices, pharmaceuticals and other life science related subsectors. Within growth capital loans it invests between $5 million and $50 million, for equipment financings it invests between $5 million and $25 million, for revolving loans it invests between $1 million and $25 million, and for direct equity investments it may invest between $0.1 million and $5 million (generally not exceeding 5% of the company’s total equity). The debt financing products are typically structured as lines of credit and it invests through warrants and secured loans. It targeted returns between 10% and 18%. It does not take board seat in the company.