ARCC vs. PSEC, FNF, NLY, BCH, EQH, BSMX, REG, TPG, LAMR, and Z
Should you be buying Ares Capital stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ares Capital include Prospect Capital (PSEC), Fidelity National Financial (FNF), Annaly Capital Management (NLY), Banco de Chile (BCH), Equitable (EQH), Banco Santander México, S.A., Institución de Banca Múltiple, Grupo Financiero Santander México (BSMX), Regency Centers (REG), TPG (TPG), Lamar Advertising (LAMR), and Zillow Group (Z). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Ares Capital vs.
Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, community ranking, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment and dividends.
In the previous week, Ares Capital had 2 more articles in the media than Prospect Capital. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Ares Capital and 3 mentions for Prospect Capital. Prospect Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Ares Capital's score of 0.58 indicating that Prospect Capital is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Prospect Capital presently has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential downside of 5.11%. Ares Capital has a consensus target price of $20.71, suggesting a potential upside of 18.10%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Prospect Capital.
Ares Capital has a net margin of 28.63% compared to Prospect Capital's net margin of 11.45%. Ares Capital's return on equity of 11.15% beat Prospect Capital's return on equity.
7.0% of Prospect Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.2% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 27.4% of Prospect Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Ares Capital shares are held by 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.
Ares Capital received 79 more outperform votes than Prospect Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.38% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote while only 53.08% of users gave Prospect Capital an outperform vote.
Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Prospect Capital. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Prospect Capital, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Prospect Capital has a beta of 1.03, meaning that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Prospect Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.5%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.9%. Prospect Capital pays out 423.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ares Capital pays out 160.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ares Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Ares Capital beats Prospect Capital on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ARCC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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Ares Capital Competitors List