Federated Investors (FII) Competitors

Federated Investors (NYSE:FII) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, community ranking, dividends and risk.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FII or ARCC?

Ares Capital received 172 more outperform votes than Federated Investors when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.69% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote while only 43.43% of users gave Federated Investors an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Federated Investors	Outperform Votes 248 43.43%	Underperform Votes 323 56.57%
Ares Capital	Outperform Votes 420 62.69%	Underperform Votes 250 37.31%

Is FII or ARCC a better dividend stock?

Federated Investors pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.9%. Federated Investors pays out 40.1% 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.

Which has more volatility & risk, FII or ARCC?

Federated Investors has a beta of 0.73, suggesting that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 0.68, suggesting that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is FII or ARCC more profitable?

Ares Capital has a net margin of 50.90% compared to Federated Investors' net margin of 20.52%. Federated Investors' return on equity of 28.65% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Federated Investors	20.52%	28.65%	15.66%
Ares Capital	50.90%	11.54%	5.50%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, FII or ARCC?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Federated Investors. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Federated Investors, 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
Federated Investors	$1.33B	3.21	$272.34M	$2.69	15.66
Ares Capital	$1.49B	10.05	$1.52B	$2.05	10.50

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

82.2% of Federated Investors shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of Federated Investors shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor FII or ARCC?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 6 more articles in the media than Federated Investors. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Ares Capital and 6 mentions for Federated Investors. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat Federated Investors' 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
Federated Investors	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Ares Capital	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer FII or ARCC?

Ares Capital has a consensus price target of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.18%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Federated Investors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Federated Investors	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Summary

Ares Capital beats Federated Investors on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.