CSWC vs. ARCC, MFIC, NMFC, OCSL, PFLT, SLRC, FSK, MAIN, OBDC, and TSLX
Should you be buying Capital Southwest stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Capital Southwest include Ares Capital (ARCC), MidCap Financial Investment (MFIC), New Mountain Finance (NMFC), Oaktree Specialty Lending (OCSL), PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (PFLT), SLR Investment (SLRC), FS KKR Capital (FSK), Main Street Capital (MAIN), Blue Owl Capital (OBDC), and Sixth Street Specialty Lending (TSLX). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Capital Southwest vs. Its Competitors
Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.
Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Capital Southwest. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Capital Southwest, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
23.4% of Capital Southwest shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Capital Southwest shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Capital Southwest pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.7%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.5%. Capital Southwest pays out 140.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ares Capital pays out 93.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Capital Southwest has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Capital Southwest is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Ares Capital had 7 more articles in the media than Capital Southwest. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Ares Capital and 5 mentions for Capital Southwest. Capital Southwest's average media sentiment score of 1.14 beat Ares Capital's score of 0.51 indicating that Capital Southwest is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Capital Southwest currently has a consensus target price of $24.30, indicating a potential upside of 12.29%. Ares Capital has a consensus target price of $22.86, indicating a potential upside of 13.60%. Given Ares Capital's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Capital Southwest.
Capital Southwest has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Ares Capital has a net margin of 44.94% compared to Capital Southwest's net margin of 39.95%. Capital Southwest's return on equity of 14.17% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.
Summary
Capital Southwest beats Ares Capital on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CSWC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media 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.
Capital Southwest Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:CSWC) was last updated on 10/6/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
