Gladstone Investment (GAIN) Competitors

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) and Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings and media sentiment.

Is GAIN or PSEC a better dividend stock?

Gladstone Investment pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.2%. Prospect Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.4%. Gladstone Investment pays out 50.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Prospect Capital pays out -270.0% 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. Prospect Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in GAIN or PSEC?

11.9% of Gladstone Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.1% of Prospect Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of Gladstone Investment shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 28.3% of Prospect Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk and volatility, GAIN or PSEC?

Gladstone Investment has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prospect Capital has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is GAIN or PSEC more profitable?

Gladstone Investment has a net margin of 78.02% compared to Prospect Capital's net margin of 1.18%. Prospect Capital's return on equity of 12.31% beat Gladstone Investment's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gladstone Investment	78.02%	7.17%	3.61%
Prospect Capital	1.18%	12.31%	5.79%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, GAIN or PSEC?

Prospect Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Investment. Prospect Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Gladstone Investment, 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
Gladstone Investment	$66.70M	7.41	$85.31M	$1.92	6.98
Prospect Capital	$101.04M	17.78	$262.83M	-$0.20	-20.15

Do analysts prefer GAIN or PSEC?

Gladstone Investment currently has a consensus price target of $13.75, indicating a potential upside of 2.54%. Prospect Capital has a consensus price target of $4.50, indicating a potential upside of 11.66%. Given Prospect Capital's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Prospect Capital is more favorable than Gladstone Investment.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gladstone Investment	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Prospect Capital	1 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.00

Does the MarketBeat Community favor GAIN or PSEC?

Gladstone Investment received 48 more outperform votes than Prospect Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.86% of users gave Gladstone Investment an outperform vote while only 51.79% of users gave Prospect Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Gladstone Investment	Outperform Votes 367 60.86%	Underperform Votes 236 39.14%
Prospect Capital	Outperform Votes 319 51.79%	Underperform Votes 297 48.21%

Does the media prefer GAIN or PSEC?

In the previous week, Prospect Capital had 4 more articles in the media than Gladstone Investment. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Prospect Capital and 3 mentions for Gladstone Investment. Prospect Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.05 beat Gladstone Investment's score of 0.82 indicating that Prospect Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Gladstone Investment	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Prospect Capital	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Prospect Capital beats Gladstone Investment on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.