Analyzing PennantPark Investment (PNNT) & Its Rivals

PennantPark Investment (NASDAQ:PNNT) is one of 1,746 public companies in the “Capital Markets” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare PennantPark Investment to similar companies based on the strength of its risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares PennantPark Investment and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
PennantPark Investment	$21.50 million	$48.85 million	20.28
PennantPark Investment Competitors	$3.12 billion	$397.40 million	15.74

PennantPark Investment’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than PennantPark Investment. PennantPark Investment is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk and Volatility

PennantPark Investment has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PennantPark Investment’s rivals have a beta of 0.79, suggesting that their average share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for PennantPark Investment and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PennantPark Investment	1	3	1	0	2.00
PennantPark Investment Competitors	5605	20212	22563	650	2.37

PennantPark Investment presently has a consensus price target of $5.10, indicating a potential upside of 57.16%. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies have a potential upside of 23.00%. Given PennantPark Investment’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe PennantPark Investment is more favorable than its rivals.

Profitability

This table compares PennantPark Investment and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PennantPark Investment	11.33%	11.59%	4.23%
PennantPark Investment Competitors	314.79%	9.90%	3.46%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.6% of PennantPark Investment shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.6% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of PennantPark Investment shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

PennantPark Investment pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.8%. PennantPark Investment pays out 300.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.2% and pay out 29.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. PennantPark Investment has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

PennantPark Investment rivals beat PennantPark Investment on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

PennantPark Investment Company Profile

PennantPark Investment Corporation is a business development company that provides financing to middle-market businesses. Its investments include secured loans, other debt and, in some cases, equity securities. The company focuses primarily on businesses in the United States and seeks to support their operations, growth and acquisitions through customized financing. PennantPark Investment began investing in 2007 and is externally managed by PennantPark Investment Advisers, an affiliate of PennantPark.