Main Street Capital (MAIN) Competitors

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

Is MAIN or ARCC a better dividend stock?

Main Street Capital pays an annual dividend of $3.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.0%. Main Street Capital pays out 50.4% 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. Main Street Capital has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

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

20.3% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is MAIN or ARCC more profitable?

Main Street Capital has a net margin of 96.16% compared to Ares Capital's net margin of 44.94%. Main Street Capital's return on equity of 12.70% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Main Street Capital	96.16%	12.70%	6.85%
Ares Capital	44.94%	10.48%	5.00%

Which has more risk and volatility, MAIN or ARCC?

Main Street Capital has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor MAIN or ARCC?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 12 more articles in the media than Main Street Capital. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Ares Capital and 8 mentions for Main Street Capital. Main Street Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.46 beat Ares Capital's score of 1.07 indicating that Main Street Capital is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Main Street Capital	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ares Capital	16 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer MAIN or ARCC?

Main Street Capital currently has a consensus target price of $61.20, indicating a potential downside of 6.12%. Ares Capital has a consensus target price of $22.86, indicating a potential upside of 7.26%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Main Street Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Main Street Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, MAIN or ARCC?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Main Street Capital. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Main Street 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
Main Street Capital	$541.03M	10.78	$508.08M	$6.07	10.74
Ares Capital	$1.50B	10.01	$1.52B	$2.05	10.40

Summary

Main Street Capital beats Ares Capital on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.