Gladstone Capital (GLAD) Competitors

Gladstone Capital (NASDAQ:GLAD) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both 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 and earnings.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in GLAD or ARCC?

10.7% of Gladstone Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of Gladstone Capital 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 hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk and volatility, GLAD or ARCC?

Gladstone Capital has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer GLAD or ARCC?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 19 more articles in the media than Gladstone Capital. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Ares Capital and 9 mentions for Gladstone Capital. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.06 beat Gladstone Capital's score of 0.84 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Gladstone Capital	1 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ares Capital	17 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is GLAD or ARCC a better dividend stock?

Gladstone Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.8%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Gladstone Capital pays out 50.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. 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. Gladstone Capital has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate GLAD or ARCC?

Gladstone Capital presently has a consensus target price of $23.00, suggesting a potential downside of 21.00%. Ares Capital has a consensus target price of $22.21, suggesting a potential downside of 3.81%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Gladstone Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gladstone Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Which has better earnings and valuation, GLAD or ARCC?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Capital. Gladstone Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ares Capital, 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 Capital	$96.62M	6.73	$94.72M	$3.94	7.39
Ares Capital	$2.99B	5.36	$1.52B	$2.05	11.27

Is GLAD or ARCC more profitable?

Gladstone Capital has a net margin of 93.42% compared to Ares Capital's net margin of 43.50%. Ares Capital's return on equity of 11.05% beat Gladstone Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gladstone Capital	93.42%	9.85%	5.78%
Ares Capital	43.50%	11.05%	5.25%

Summary

Ares Capital beats Gladstone Capital on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.