HFF (HF) Competitors

Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) and HFF (NYSE:HF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, community ranking, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations and risk.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, CGBD or HF?

HFF has higher revenue and earnings than Carlyle Secured Lending. HFF is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Carlyle Secured 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
Carlyle Secured Lending	$241.63M	3.54	$92.28M	$1.69	9.97
HFF	$662.04M	1.31	$115.99M	$2.88	7.54

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in CGBD or HF?

HFF received 99 more outperform votes than Carlyle Secured Lending when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.45% of users gave HFF an outperform vote while only 57.72% of users gave Carlyle Secured Lending an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Carlyle Secured Lending	Outperform Votes 187 57.72%	Underperform Votes 137 42.28%
HFF	Outperform Votes 286 65.45%	Underperform Votes 151 34.55%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in CGBD or HF?

24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.8% of HFF shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of HFF shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk and volatility, CGBD or HF?

Carlyle Secured Lending has a beta of 1.59, indicating that its stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HFF has a beta of 1.59, indicating that its stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor CGBD or HF?

In the previous week, HFF had 2 more articles in the media than Carlyle Secured Lending. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for HFF and 4 mentions for Carlyle Secured Lending. HFF's average media sentiment score of 1.21 beat Carlyle Secured Lending's score of 0.00 indicating that Carlyle Secured Lending is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Carlyle Secured Lending	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
HFF	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is CGBD or HF more profitable?

Carlyle Secured Lending has a net margin of 38.19% compared to Carlyle Secured Lending's net margin of 18.38%. Carlyle Secured Lending's return on equity of 41.56% beat HFF's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carlyle Secured Lending	38.19%	12.80%	5.54%
HFF	18.38%	41.56%	12.58%

Do analysts rate CGBD or HF?

Carlyle Secured Lending currently has a consensus target price of $16.00, suggesting a potential downside of 5.04%. Given HFF's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Carlyle Secured Lending is more favorable than HFF.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carlyle Secured Lending	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
HFF	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A

Summary

HFF beats Carlyle Secured Lending on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.