Oaktree Specialty Lending (OCSL) Competitors

Oaktree Specialty Lending (NASDAQ:OCSL) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and dividends.

Do analysts prefer OCSL or ARCC?

Oaktree Specialty Lending presently has a consensus price target of $15.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.19%. Ares Capital has a consensus price target of $22.86, suggesting a potential upside of 13.60%. Given Oaktree Specialty Lending's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Oaktree Specialty Lending is more favorable than Ares Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oaktree Specialty Lending	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.89
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80

Which has higher earnings and valuation, OCSL or ARCC?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Oaktree Specialty Lending. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Oaktree Specialty Lending, 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
Oaktree Specialty Lending	$381.67M	2.95	$57.90M	$0.56	22.86
Ares Capital	$2.99B	4.75	$1.52B	$2.05	9.81

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of OCSL or ARCC?

36.8% of Oaktree Specialty Lending shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Oaktree Specialty Lending 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 large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Does the media prefer OCSL or ARCC?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 11 more articles in the media than Oaktree Specialty Lending. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Ares Capital and 1 mentions for Oaktree Specialty Lending. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 0.51 beat Oaktree Specialty Lending's score of 0.00 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Oaktree Specialty Lending	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Ares Capital	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility & risk, OCSL or ARCC?

Oaktree Specialty Lending has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is OCSL or ARCC a better dividend stock?

Oaktree Specialty Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.5%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.5%. Oaktree Specialty Lending pays out 285.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. 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.

Is OCSL or ARCC more profitable?

Ares Capital has a net margin of 44.94% compared to Oaktree Specialty Lending's net margin of 13.84%. Oaktree Specialty Lending's return on equity of 10.94% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oaktree Specialty Lending	13.84%	10.94%	5.23%
Ares Capital	44.94%	10.48%	5.00%

Summary

Ares Capital beats Oaktree Specialty Lending on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.