Runway Growth Finance (RWAY) Competitors

LexinFintech (NASDAQ:LX) and Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking, profitability, risk, media sentiment, earnings and valuation.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LX or RWAY?

LexinFintech received 221 more outperform votes than Runway Growth Finance when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.65% of users gave LexinFintech an outperform vote while only 42.55% of users gave Runway Growth Finance an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
LexinFintech	Outperform Votes 241 59.65%	Underperform Votes 163 40.35%
Runway Growth Finance	Outperform Votes 20 42.55%	Underperform Votes 27 57.45%

Do analysts prefer LX or RWAY?

LexinFintech presently has a consensus price target of $13.60, indicating a potential upside of 86.30%. Runway Growth Finance has a consensus price target of $11.80, indicating a potential upside of 29.53%. Given LexinFintech's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe LexinFintech is more favorable than Runway Growth Finance.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LexinFintech	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Runway Growth Finance	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Does the media refer more to LX or RWAY?

In the previous week, LexinFintech had 4 more articles in the media than Runway Growth Finance. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for LexinFintech and 6 mentions for Runway Growth Finance. Runway Growth Finance's average media sentiment score of 1.34 beat LexinFintech's score of 1.18 indicating that Runway Growth Finance is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
LexinFintech	5 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Runway Growth Finance	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of LX or RWAY?

64.6% of Runway Growth Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. 27.8% of LexinFintech shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Runway Growth Finance shares are owned 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 more risk and volatility, LX or RWAY?

LexinFintech has a beta of 0.32, meaning that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Runway Growth Finance has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, LX or RWAY?

LexinFintech has higher revenue and earnings than Runway Growth Finance. Runway Growth Finance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LexinFintech, 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
LexinFintech	$14.20B	0.08	$150.14M	$0.90	8.11
Runway Growth Finance	$85.89M	3.96	$44.34M	$1.91	4.77

Is LX or RWAY more profitable?

Runway Growth Finance has a net margin of 27.05% compared to LexinFintech's net margin of 5.34%. Runway Growth Finance's return on equity of 12.91% beat LexinFintech's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LexinFintech	5.34%	7.47%	3.26%
Runway Growth Finance	27.05%	12.91%	6.33%

Is LX or RWAY a better dividend stock?

LexinFintech pays an annual dividend of $0.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Runway Growth Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.5%. LexinFintech pays out 18.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Runway Growth Finance pays out 69.1% 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.

Summary

LexinFintech beats Runway Growth Finance on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.