Gladstone Investment (GAIN) Competitors

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) and Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and community ranking.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in GAIN or PSEC?

11.9% of Gladstone Investment shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.1% of Prospect Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of Gladstone Investment shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 27.1% of Prospect Capital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, GAIN or PSEC?

Gladstone Investment has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prospect Capital has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer GAIN or PSEC?

In the previous week, Prospect Capital had 12 more articles in the media than Gladstone Investment. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Prospect Capital and 1 mentions for Gladstone Investment. Gladstone Investment's average media sentiment score of 0.93 beat Prospect Capital's score of 0.60 indicating that Gladstone Investment is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Gladstone Investment	Positive
Prospect Capital	Positive

Is GAIN or PSEC a better dividend stock?

Gladstone Investment pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Prospect Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.5%. Gladstone Investment pays out 50.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Prospect Capital pays out -270.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Prospect Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend GAIN or PSEC?

Gladstone Investment presently has a consensus target price of $13.75, suggesting a potential upside of 2.00%. Prospect Capital has a consensus target price of $4.50, suggesting a potential upside of 4.41%. Given Prospect Capital's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Prospect Capital is more favorable than Gladstone Investment.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gladstone Investment	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Prospect Capital	1 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.00

Which has higher valuation and earnings, GAIN or PSEC?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gladstone Investment	$66.70M	7.44	$85.31M	$1.92	7.02
Prospect Capital	$101.04M	19.01	$262.83M	-$0.20	-21.55

Is GAIN or PSEC more profitable?

Gladstone Investment has a net margin of 78.02% compared to Prospect Capital's net margin of 1.18%. Prospect Capital's return on equity of 12.31% beat Gladstone Investment's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gladstone Investment	78.02%	7.17%	3.61%
Prospect Capital	1.18%	12.31%	5.79%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer GAIN or PSEC?

Gladstone Investment received 48 more outperform votes than Prospect Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.86% of users gave Gladstone Investment an outperform vote while only 51.79% of users gave Prospect Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Gladstone Investment	Outperform Votes 367 60.86%	Underperform Votes 236 39.14%
Prospect Capital	Outperform Votes 319 51.79%	Underperform Votes 297 48.21%

Summary

Prospect Capital beats Gladstone Investment on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.