Financial Survey: Barings Bdc (NYSE:BBDC) vs. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC (NYSE:TPVG)

Barings Bdc (NYSE:BBDC) and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC (NYSE:TPVG) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

44.1% of Barings Bdc shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.8% of TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Barings Bdc shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC 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 Barings Bdc and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barings Bdc	32.45%	10.08%	4.33%
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	46.77%	11.54%	4.97%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Barings Bdc and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barings Bdc	0	3	1	0	2.25
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	2	4	0	0	1.67

Barings Bdc currently has a consensus price target of $9.50, suggesting a potential upside of 12.49%. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC has a consensus price target of $5.63, suggesting a potential upside of 2.18%. Given Barings Bdc’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Barings Bdc is more favorable than TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC.

Volatility and Risk

Barings Bdc has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Barings Bdc and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barings Bdc	$279.21 million	3.17	$101.92 million	$0.85	9.94
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	$90.93 million	2.46	$49.21 million	$1.06	5.19

Barings Bdc has higher revenue and earnings than TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Barings Bdc, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Barings Bdc pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.3%. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.7%. Barings Bdc pays out 122.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC pays out 86.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Barings Bdc has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Barings Bdc beats TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barings Bdc

Barings BDC, Inc. is a publicly traded, externally managed investment company that has elected to be treated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. It seeks to invest primarily in senior secured loans, first lien debt, unitranche, second lien debt, subordinated debt, equity co-investments and senior secured private debt investments in private middle-market companies that operate across a wide range of industries. It specializes in mezzanine, leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, ESOPs, change of control transactions, acquisition financings, growth financing, and recapitalizations in lower middle market, mature, and later stage companies. It invests in manufacturing and distribution; business services and technology; transportation and logistics; consumer product and services. It invests in United States. It invests in companies with EBITDA of $10 million to $75 million, typically in private equity sponsor backed.

About TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in venture capital-backed companies at the growth stage investments. It also provides debt financing to venture growth space companies which includes growth capital loans, secured and customized loans, equipment financings, revolving loans and direct equity investments. The fund seeks to invest in e-commerce, entertainment, technology and life sciences sector. Within technology the areas of focus include: Security, wireless communication equipments, network system and software, business applications software, conferencing equipments/services .big data, cloud computing, data storage, electronics, energy efficiency, hardware, information services, internet and media, networking, semiconductors, software, software as a service, and other technology related subsectors and within life sciences the areas of focus include: biotechnology, bio fuels/bio mass, diagnostic testing and bioinformatics, drug delivery, drug discovery, healthcare information systems, healthcare services, medical, surgical and therapeutic devices, pharmaceuticals and other life science related subsectors. Within growth capital loans it invests between $5 million and $50 million, for equipment financings it invests between $5 million and $25 million, for revolving loans it invests between $1 million and $25 million, and for direct equity investments it may invest between $0.1 million and $5 million (generally not exceeding 5% of the company’s total equity). The debt financing products are typically structured as lines of credit and it invests through warrants and secured loans. It targeted returns between 10% and 18%. It does not take board seat in the company.