Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund (MSD) Competitors

Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund (NYSE:MSD) and Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Is MSD or ECC a better dividend stock?

Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.89 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.8%. Eagle Point Credit pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 23.9%. Eagle Point Credit pays out 1,527.3% 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 risk and volatility, MSD or ECC?

Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund has a beta of 0.54, indicating that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eagle Point Credit has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend MSD or ECC?

Eagle Point Credit has a consensus price target of $8.67, suggesting a potential upside of 23.37%. Given Eagle Point Credit's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eagle Point Credit is more favorable than Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Eagle Point Credit	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is MSD or ECC more profitable?

Eagle Point Credit has a net margin of 6.73% compared to Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund's net margin of 0.00%. Eagle Point Credit's return on equity of 13.49% beat Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A
Eagle Point Credit	6.73%	13.49%	8.59%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of MSD or ECC?

19.5% of Eagle Point Credit shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Eagle Point Credit shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, MSD or ECC?

Eagle Point Credit has higher revenue and earnings than Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	$16.77M	9.11	N/A	N/A	N/A
Eagle Point Credit	$179.77M	3.01	$85.49M	$0.11	63.86

Does the media refer more to MSD or ECC?

In the previous week, Eagle Point Credit had 1 more articles in the media than Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Eagle Point Credit and 1 mentions for Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund. Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund's average media sentiment score of 0.79 beat Eagle Point Credit's score of 0.31 indicating that Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Eagle Point Credit	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Eagle Point Credit beats Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.