Franklin Universal Trust (FT) Competitors

Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) and Franklin Universal Trust (NYSE:FT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, media sentiment and valuation.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CGBD or FT?

Carlyle Secured Lending received 107 more outperform votes than Franklin Universal Trust when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.52% of users gave Franklin Universal Trust an outperform vote while only 56.33% of users gave Carlyle Secured Lending an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Carlyle Secured Lending	Outperform Votes 187 56.33%	Underperform Votes 145 43.67%
Franklin Universal Trust	Outperform Votes 80 64.52%	Underperform Votes 44 35.48%

Which has better earnings & valuation, CGBD or FT?

Carlyle Secured Lending has higher revenue and earnings than Franklin Universal Trust.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carlyle Secured Lending	$99.28M	7.30	$92.28M	$1.62	8.78
Franklin Universal Trust	$34.97M	5.16	N/A	N/A	N/A

Which has more volatility and risk, CGBD or FT?

Carlyle Secured Lending has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin Universal Trust has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in CGBD or FT?

24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.8% of Franklin Universal Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is CGBD or FT more profitable?

Carlyle Secured Lending has a net margin of 40.69% compared to Franklin Universal Trust's net margin of 0.00%. Carlyle Secured Lending's return on equity of 12.60% beat Franklin Universal Trust's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carlyle Secured Lending	40.69%	12.60%	5.77%
Franklin Universal Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A

Do analysts recommend CGBD or FT?

Carlyle Secured Lending currently has a consensus price target of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 19.55%. Given Carlyle Secured Lending's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Carlyle Secured Lending is more favorable than Franklin Universal Trust.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carlyle Secured Lending	2 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.33
Franklin Universal Trust	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Does the media refer more to CGBD or FT?

In the previous week, Franklin Universal Trust had 1 more articles in the media than Carlyle Secured Lending. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Franklin Universal Trust and 2 mentions for Carlyle Secured Lending. Carlyle Secured Lending's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Franklin Universal Trust's score of 1.54 indicating that Carlyle Secured Lending is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Carlyle Secured Lending	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Franklin Universal Trust	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Is CGBD or FT a better dividend stock?

Carlyle Secured Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.3%. Franklin Universal Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.51 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Carlyle Secured Lending pays out 98.8% 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

Carlyle Secured Lending beats Franklin Universal Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.