Federated Investors (FII) Competitors

Federated Investors (NYSE:FII) and Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Is FII or ARCC more profitable?

Ares Capital has a net margin of 43.50% compared to Federated Investors' net margin of 20.52%. Federated Investors' return on equity of 28.65% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Federated Investors	20.52%	28.65%	15.66%
Ares Capital	43.50%	11.05%	5.25%

Do analysts rate FII or ARCC?

Ares Capital has a consensus target price of $22.21, indicating a potential downside of 4.29%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Federated Investors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Federated Investors	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Does the media prefer FII or ARCC?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 22 more articles in the media than Federated Investors. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Ares Capital and 3 mentions for Federated Investors. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat Federated Investors' score of 0.00 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Federated Investors	0 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Ares Capital	15 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, FII or ARCC?

Federated Investors has a beta of 0.73, meaning that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in FII or ARCC?

82.2% of Federated Investors shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of Federated Investors shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has better earnings & valuation, FII or ARCC?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Federated Investors. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Federated Investors, 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
Federated Investors	$1.33B	3.61	$272.34M	$2.69	17.59
Ares Capital	$2.99B	5.39	$1.52B	$2.05	11.32

Is FII or ARCC a better dividend stock?

Federated Investors pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Federated Investors pays out 40.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ares Capital pays out 93.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Ares Capital beats Federated Investors on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.