Golub Capital BDC (GBDC) Competitors

Golub Capital BDC (NASDAQ:GBDC) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, risk, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Do analysts prefer GBDC or ARCC?

Golub Capital BDC presently has a consensus target price of $16.17, suggesting a potential upside of 6.71%. Ares Capital has a consensus target price of $22.94, suggesting a potential upside of 2.35%. Given Golub Capital BDC's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Golub Capital BDC is more favorable than Ares Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Golub Capital BDC	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82

Which has higher earnings and valuation, GBDC or ARCC?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Golub Capital BDC. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Golub Capital BDC, 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
Golub Capital BDC	$309.01M	13.02	$273.79M	$1.38	10.98
Ares Capital	$1.71B	8.98	$1.52B	$2.45	9.15

Is GBDC or ARCC more profitable?

Ares Capital has a net margin of 50.90% compared to Golub Capital BDC's net margin of 39.63%. Ares Capital's return on equity of 11.54% beat Golub Capital BDC's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Golub Capital BDC	39.63%	11.18%	5.11%
Ares Capital	50.90%	11.54%	5.50%

Which has more volatility and risk, GBDC or ARCC?

Golub Capital BDC has a beta of 0.5, meaning that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Is GBDC or ARCC a better dividend stock?

Golub Capital BDC pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.3%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.6%. Golub Capital BDC pays out 113.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. 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.

Does the media refer more to GBDC or ARCC?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 17 more articles in the media than Golub Capital BDC. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Ares Capital and 7 mentions for Golub Capital BDC. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.16 beat Golub Capital BDC's score of 0.99 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Golub Capital BDC	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ares Capital	16 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals and insiders believe in GBDC or ARCC?

42.4% of Golub Capital BDC shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 3.6% of Golub Capital BDC shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Ares Capital 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer GBDC or ARCC?

Ares Capital received 113 more outperform votes than Golub Capital BDC when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.56% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote while only 55.19% of users gave Golub Capital BDC an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Golub Capital BDC	Outperform Votes 303 55.19%	Underperform Votes 246 44.81%
Ares Capital	Outperform Votes 416 62.56%	Underperform Votes 249 37.44%

Summary

Ares Capital beats Golub Capital BDC on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.