Head to Head Analysis: Crescent Capital BDC (NASDAQ:CCAP) vs. Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD)

Crescent Capital BDC (NASDAQ:CCAP) and Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

49.5% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Crescent Capital BDC has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Carlyle Secured Lending has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Crescent Capital BDC and Carlyle Secured Lending, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crescent Capital BDC	1	3	2	0	2.17
Carlyle Secured Lending	0	4	3	0	2.43

Crescent Capital BDC currently has a consensus target price of $14.30, suggesting a potential upside of 25.33%. Carlyle Secured Lending has a consensus target price of $12.50, suggesting a potential upside of 15.63%. Given Crescent Capital BDC’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Crescent Capital BDC is more favorable than Carlyle Secured Lending.

Profitability

This table compares Crescent Capital BDC and Carlyle Secured Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crescent Capital BDC	9.26%	9.34%	4.04%
Carlyle Secured Lending	19.52%	8.99%	4.01%

Dividends

Crescent Capital BDC pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.7%. Carlyle Secured Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.8%. Crescent Capital BDC pays out 409.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Carlyle Secured Lending pays out 225.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Crescent Capital BDC has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Carlyle Secured Lending is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Crescent Capital BDC and Carlyle Secured Lending”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crescent Capital BDC	$167.29 million	2.51	$34.51 million	$0.41	27.83
Carlyle Secured Lending	$255.57 million	2.94	$69.97 million	$0.71	15.23

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

Summary

Carlyle Secured Lending beats Crescent Capital BDC on 10 of the 17 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 Carlyle Secured Lending

Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. is business development company specializing in first lien debt, senior secured loans, second lien senior secured loan unsecured debt, mezzanine debt and investments in equities. It specializes in directly investing. It specializes in middle market. It targets healthcare and pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, high tech industries, business services, software, beverage food and tobacco, hotel gamming and leisure, banking finance insurance and in real estate sector. The fund seeks to invest across United States of America, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, and United Kingdom. It invests in companies with EBITDA between $25 million and $100 million.