Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (BXSL) Competitors

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

Is ARCC or BXSL a better dividend stock?

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.7%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.8%. 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. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays out 97.2% 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 ARCC or BXSL more profitable?

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a net margin of 47.80% compared to Ares Capital's net margin of 43.50%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund's return on equity of 12.49% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Capital	43.50%	11.05%	5.25%
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	47.80%	12.49%	5.67%

Which has more risk and volatility, ARCC or BXSL?

Ares Capital has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of ARCC or BXSL?

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.5% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has better earnings & valuation, ARCC or BXSL?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Blackstone Secured Lending Fund. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund 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
Ares Capital	$2.99B	5.10	$1.52B	$2.05	10.71
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	$1.33B	5.38	$694.10M	$3.17	9.88

Do analysts prefer ARCC or BXSL?

Ares Capital presently has a consensus target price of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.23%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a consensus target price of $31.38, indicating a potential upside of 0.20%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Blackstone Secured Lending Fund.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Does the media refer more to ARCC or BXSL?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 16 more articles in the media than Blackstone Secured Lending Fund. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for Ares Capital and 1 mentions for Blackstone Secured Lending Fund. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat Blackstone Secured Lending Fund's score of 0.87 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ares Capital	14 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Ares Capital beats Blackstone Secured Lending Fund on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.