Ares Capital (ARCC) Competitors

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) and Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, profitability, analyst recommendations, community ranking and risk.

Is ARCC or AMP a better dividend stock?

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.6%. Ameriprise Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Ares Capital pays out 78.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ameriprise Financial pays out 17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameriprise Financial has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years.

Does the media refer more to ARCC or AMP?

In the previous week, Ameriprise Financial had 22 more articles in the media than Ares Capital. MarketBeat recorded 34 mentions for Ameriprise Financial and 12 mentions for Ares Capital. Ameriprise Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.44 beat Ares Capital's score of 1.35 indicating that Ameriprise Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ares Capital	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ameriprise Financial	27 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in ARCC or AMP?

Ameriprise Financial received 182 more outperform votes than Ares Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.35% of users gave Ameriprise Financial an outperform vote while only 62.56% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ares Capital	Outperform Votes 416 62.56%	Underperform Votes 249 37.44%
Ameriprise Financial	Outperform Votes 598 63.35%	Underperform Votes 346 36.65%

Is ARCC or AMP more profitable?

Ares Capital has a net margin of 50.90% compared to Ameriprise Financial's net margin of 19.70%. Ameriprise Financial's return on equity of 69.35% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Capital	50.90%	11.54%	5.50%
Ameriprise Financial	19.70%	69.35%	1.99%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in ARCC or AMP?

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.9% of Ameriprise Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Ameriprise Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has better earnings and valuation, ARCC or AMP?

Ameriprise Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Ares Capital. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ameriprise Financial, 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
Ares Capital	$1.71B	8.90	$1.52B	$2.45	9.11
Ameriprise Financial	$17.26B	2.85	$3.40B	$33.06	15.49

Which has more volatility & risk, ARCC or AMP?

Ares Capital has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Ameriprise Financial has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend ARCC or AMP?

Ares Capital presently has a consensus price target of $22.94, indicating a potential upside of 2.81%. Ameriprise Financial has a consensus price target of $514.89, indicating a potential upside of 0.56%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Ameriprise Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82
Ameriprise Financial	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.22

Summary

Ameriprise Financial beats Ares Capital on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.