Federated Investors (FII) Competitors

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

Is ARCC or FII 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
Ares Capital	50.90%	11.54%	5.50%
Federated Investors	20.52%	28.65%	15.66%

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

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.2% of Federated Investors shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.5% of Federated Investors 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.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, ARCC or FII?

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
Ares Capital	$1.71B	8.15	$1.52B	$2.45	8.30
Federated Investors	$1.33B	3.10	$272.34M	$2.69	15.10

Which has more risk and volatility, ARCC or FII?

Ares Capital has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Federated Investors has a beta of 0.73, indicating that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in ARCC or FII?

Ares Capital received 171 more outperform votes than Federated Investors when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.63% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote while only 43.43% of users gave Federated Investors an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ares Capital	Outperform Votes 419 62.63%	Underperform Votes 250 37.37%
Federated Investors	Outperform Votes 248 43.43%	Underperform Votes 323 56.57%

Do analysts rate ARCC or FII?

Ares Capital presently has a consensus price target of $22.22, indicating a potential upside of 9.28%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Federated Investors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82
Federated Investors	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Is ARCC or FII a better dividend stock?

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.4%. Federated Investors pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Ares Capital pays out 78.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Federated Investors pays out 40.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Does the media prefer ARCC or FII?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 30 more articles in the media than Federated Investors. MarketBeat recorded 37 mentions for Ares Capital and 7 mentions for Federated Investors. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 0.49 beat Federated Investors' score of 0.00 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	10 Very Positive mention(s)	7 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Federated Investors	0 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Ares Capital beats Federated Investors on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.