VPC Specialty Lending Investments (VSL) Competitors

VPC Specialty Lending Investments (LON:VSL) and Henderson High Income Trust (LON:HHI) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Does the media favor VSL or HHI?

In the previous week, Henderson High Income Trust had 1 more articles in the media than VPC Specialty Lending Investments. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for Henderson High Income Trust and 0 mentions for VPC Specialty Lending Investments. Henderson High Income Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.67 beat VPC Specialty Lending Investments' score of 0.00 indicating that Henderson High Income Trust is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
VPC Specialty Lending Investments	Neutral
Henderson High Income Trust	Very Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, VSL or HHI?

Henderson High Income Trust has higher revenue and earnings than VPC Specialty Lending Investments. VPC Specialty Lending Investments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Henderson High Income Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
VPC Specialty Lending Investments	-£24.66M	-2.99	-£31.27M	-£11.24	-2.36
Henderson High Income Trust	£39.56M	7.25	£34.16M	£19.69	8.43

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in VSL or HHI?

VPC Specialty Lending Investments received 38 more outperform votes than Henderson High Income Trust when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.33% of users gave VPC Specialty Lending Investments an outperform vote while only 60.33% of users gave Henderson High Income Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
VPC Specialty Lending Investments	Outperform Votes 111 61.33%	Underperform Votes 70 38.67%
Henderson High Income Trust	Outperform Votes 73 60.33%	Underperform Votes 48 39.67%

Is VSL or HHI more profitable?

VPC Specialty Lending Investments has a net margin of 126.83% compared to Henderson High Income Trust's net margin of 86.35%. Henderson High Income Trust's return on equity of 12.66% beat VPC Specialty Lending Investments' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VPC Specialty Lending Investments	126.83%	-15.02%	-3.93%
Henderson High Income Trust	86.35%	12.66%	7.10%

Which has more risk and volatility, VSL or HHI?

VPC Specialty Lending Investments has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Henderson High Income Trust has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of VSL or HHI?

33.6% of VPC Specialty Lending Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 7.2% of Henderson High Income Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 25.4% of VPC Specialty Lending Investments shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of Henderson High Income Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is VSL or HHI a better dividend stock?

VPC Specialty Lending Investments pays an annual dividend of GBX 8 per share and has a dividend yield of 30.2%. Henderson High Income Trust pays an annual dividend of GBX 11 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. VPC Specialty Lending Investments pays out -71.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Henderson High Income Trust pays out 55.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. VPC Specialty Lending Investments is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Henderson High Income Trust beats VPC Specialty Lending Investments on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.