Contrasting MSC Income Fund (NYSE:MSIF) and Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD)

MSC Income Fund (NYSE:MSIF) and Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for MSC Income Fund and Carlyle Secured Lending, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSC Income Fund	0	3	2	1	2.67
Carlyle Secured Lending	0	4	1	1	2.50

MSC Income Fund currently has a consensus price target of $13.88, suggesting a potential upside of 17.98%. Carlyle Secured Lending has a consensus price target of $11.33, suggesting a potential upside of 6.32%. Given MSC Income Fund’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe MSC Income Fund is more favorable than Carlyle Secured Lending.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of MSC Income Fund shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MSC Income Fund and Carlyle Secured Lending”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSC Income Fund	$110.26 million	5.03	$100.90 million	$2.14	5.50
Carlyle Secured Lending	$255.57 million	2.87	$69.97 million	$0.51	20.90

MSC Income Fund has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Carlyle Secured Lending. MSC Income Fund 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.

Profitability

This table compares MSC Income Fund and Carlyle Secured Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSC Income Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A
Carlyle Secured Lending	14.26%	8.85%	3.90%

Summary

MSC Income Fund beats Carlyle Secured Lending on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Carlyle Secured Lending

Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. is business development company specializing in first lien debt, senior secured loans, second lien senior secured loan unsecured debt, mezzanine debt and investments in equities. It specializes in directly investing. It specializes in middle market. It targets healthcare and pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, high tech industries, business services, software, beverage food and tobacco, hotel gamming and leisure, banking finance insurance and in real estate sector. The fund seeks to invest across United States of America, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, and United Kingdom. It invests in companies with EBITDA between $25 million and $100 million.