Prospect Capital (PSEC) Competitors

Main Street Capital (NYSE:MAIN) and Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment and profitability.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in MAIN or PSEC?

Main Street Capital received 82 more outperform votes than Prospect Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 56.80% of users gave Main Street Capital an outperform vote while only 51.79% of users gave Prospect Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Main Street Capital	Outperform Votes 401 56.80%	Underperform Votes 305 43.20%
Prospect Capital	Outperform Votes 319 51.79%	Underperform Votes 297 48.21%

Is MAIN or PSEC a better dividend stock?

Main Street Capital pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Prospect Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.2%. Main Street Capital pays out 54.3% 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.

Which has better valuation & earnings, MAIN or PSEC?

Main Street Capital has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Prospect Capital. Prospect Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Main Street Capital, 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
Main Street Capital	$500.39M	10.97	$428.45M	$5.52	11.28
Prospect Capital	$861.66M	2.28	$262.83M	-$0.20	-22.20

Is MAIN or PSEC more profitable?

Main Street Capital has a net margin of 89.25% compared to Prospect Capital's net margin of 1.18%. Main Street Capital's return on equity of 13.83% beat Prospect Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Main Street Capital	89.25%	13.83%	7.37%
Prospect Capital	1.18%	12.31%	5.79%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in MAIN or PSEC?

20.3% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.1% of Prospect Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 27.1% 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 is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, MAIN or PSEC?

Main Street Capital has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prospect Capital has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to MAIN or PSEC?

In the previous week, Main Street Capital had 8 more articles in the media than Prospect Capital. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Main Street Capital and 1 mentions for Prospect Capital. Prospect Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.81 beat Main Street Capital's score of 1.21 indicating that Prospect Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Main Street Capital	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Prospect Capital	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do analysts prefer MAIN or PSEC?

Main Street Capital currently has a consensus target price of $48.80, suggesting a potential downside of 21.63%. Prospect Capital has a consensus target price of $4.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1.35%. Given Prospect Capital's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Prospect Capital is more favorable than Main Street Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Main Street Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20
Prospect Capital	1 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.00

Summary

Main Street Capital beats Prospect Capital on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.