Crescent Capital BDC (NASDAQ:CCAP) versus WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) Head-To-Head Comparison

Crescent Capital BDC (NASDAQ:CCAP) and WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Crescent Capital BDC and WhiteHorse Finance, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crescent Capital BDC	1	1	3	1	2.67
WhiteHorse Finance	3	2	0	0	1.40

Crescent Capital BDC currently has a consensus price target of $16.38, indicating a potential upside of 20.18%. WhiteHorse Finance has a consensus price target of $7.75, indicating a potential upside of 8.24%. Given Crescent Capital BDC’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Crescent Capital BDC is more favorable than WhiteHorse Finance.

Risk and Volatility

Crescent Capital BDC has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WhiteHorse Finance has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Crescent Capital BDC and WhiteHorse Finance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crescent Capital BDC	20.84%	9.76%	4.30%
WhiteHorse Finance	4.36%	10.72%	4.51%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Crescent Capital BDC and WhiteHorse Finance”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crescent Capital BDC	$197.36 million	2.55	$73.65 million	$0.98	13.90
WhiteHorse Finance	$15.86 million	10.50	$10.85 million	$0.43	16.65

Crescent Capital BDC has higher revenue and earnings than WhiteHorse Finance. Crescent Capital BDC is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WhiteHorse Finance, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

49.5% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.2% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Crescent Capital BDC pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.3%. WhiteHorse Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.0%. Crescent Capital BDC pays out 171.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. WhiteHorse Finance pays out 232.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Crescent Capital BDC has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and WhiteHorse Finance has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. WhiteHorse Finance is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Crescent Capital BDC beats WhiteHorse Finance on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crescent Capital BDC

Crescent Capital BDC, Inc. is as a business development company private equity / buyouts and loan fund. It specializes in directly investing. It specializes in middle market. The fund seeks to invest in United States.

About WhiteHorse Finance

WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. is business development company, non-diversified, closed end management company specializing in originating senior secured loans, lower middle market, growth capital industries. It invests in broadline retail, office services and supplies, building products, health care services, health care supplies, research and consulting services, application software, home furnishings, specialized consumer services, data processing and outsourced services, leisure facilities, cable, and satellite. It prefers to invest in United States. It typically invests between $5 million to $25 million in companies having enterprise value of between $50 million and $350 million.