Contrasting Horizon Technology Finance (NASDAQ:HRZN) & Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Horizon Technology Finance (NASDAQ:HRZN) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Horizon Technology Finance pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.0%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.3%. Horizon Technology Finance pays out 167.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ares Capital pays out 117.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Horizon Technology Finance and Ares Capital”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horizon Technology Finance	$96.02 million	2.85	-$2.66 million	$0.43	9.33
Ares Capital	$3.05 billion	4.37	$1.30 billion	$1.63	11.40

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Horizon Technology Finance. Horizon Technology Finance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ares Capital, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Horizon Technology Finance has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 0.58, meaning that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Horizon Technology Finance and Ares Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horizon Technology Finance	1	5	1	0	2.00
Ares Capital	0	2	9	0	2.82

Horizon Technology Finance currently has a consensus target price of $5.65, indicating a potential upside of 40.90%. Ares Capital has a consensus target price of $20.75, indicating a potential upside of 11.62%. Given Horizon Technology Finance’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Horizon Technology Finance is more favorable than Ares Capital.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

4.9% of Horizon Technology Finance shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Horizon Technology Finance shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Horizon Technology Finance and Ares Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horizon Technology Finance	22.55%	13.63%	5.53%
Ares Capital	37.30%	9.85%	4.59%

Summary

Ares Capital beats Horizon Technology Finance on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Horizon Technology Finance

Horizon Technology Finance Corporation is a business development company specializing in lending and and investing in development-stage investments. It focuses on making secured debt and venture lending investments to venture capital backed companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, cleantech and sustainability industries. It seeks to invest in companies in the United States.

About Ares Capital

Ares Capital Corporation is a business development company specializing in acquisition, recapitalization, mezzanine debt, restructurings, rescue financing, and leveraged buyout transactions of middle market companies. It also makes growth capital and general refinancing. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the basic and growth manufacturing, business services, consumer products, health care products and services, and information technology service sectors. The fund will also consider investments in industries such as restaurants, retail, oil and gas, and technology sectors. It focuses on investments in Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Southwest regions from its New York office, the Midwest region, from the Chicago office, and the Western region from the Los Angeles office. The fund typically invests between $20 million and $200 million and a maximum of $400 million in companies with an EBITDA between $10 million and $250 million. It makes debt investments between $10 million and $100 million The fund invests through revolvers, first lien loans, warrants, unitranche structures, second lien loans, mezzanine debt, private high yield, junior capital, subordinated debt, and non-control preferred and common equity. The fund also selectively considers third-party-led senior and subordinated debt financings and opportunistically considers the purchase of stressed and discounted debt positions. The fund prefers to be an agent and/or lead the transactions in which it invests. The fund also seeks board representation in its portfolio companies.