Main Street Capital (MAIN) Competitors

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

Is ARCC or MAIN more profitable?

Main Street Capital has a net margin of 94.61% compared to Ares Capital's net margin of 43.50%. Main Street Capital's return on equity of 13.02% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Capital	43.50%	11.05%	5.25%
Main Street Capital	94.61%	13.02%	6.95%

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in ARCC or MAIN?

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.3% of Main Street Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Main Street Capital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ARCC or MAIN a better dividend stock?

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Main Street Capital pays an annual dividend of $3.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. 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. Main Street Capital pays out 52.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Main Street Capital has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Which has more risk and volatility, ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Main Street Capital has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital presently has a consensus price target of $22.21, indicating a potential downside of 4.29%. Main Street Capital has a consensus price target of $53.60, indicating a potential downside of 16.83%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Main Street Capital.

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
Main Street Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Which has better earnings and valuation, ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Main Street Capital. Main Street Capital 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	5.39	$1.52B	$2.05	11.32
Main Street Capital	$541.03M	10.61	$508.08M	$5.89	10.94

Does the media favor ARCC or MAIN?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 11 more articles in the media than Main Street Capital. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for Ares Capital and 18 mentions for Main Street Capital. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.10 beat Main Street Capital's score of 0.44 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	19 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Main Street Capital	5 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Ares Capital beats Main Street Capital on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.