Main Street Capital (MAIN) Competitors

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

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, MAIN or ARCC?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Main Street Capital. Ares 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	9.51	$428.45M	$5.52	9.78
Ares Capital	$1.76B	8.09	$1.52B	$2.60	8.47

Is MAIN or ARCC a better dividend stock?

Main Street Capital pays an annual dividend of $2.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.7%. Main Street Capital pays out 53.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ares Capital pays out 73.8% 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.

Do analysts prefer MAIN or ARCC?

Main Street Capital currently has a consensus price target of $48.80, indicating a potential downside of 9.58%. Ares Capital has a consensus price target of $21.86, indicating a potential downside of 0.74%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ares 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
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Does the media favor MAIN or ARCC?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 13 more articles in the media than Main Street Capital. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for Ares Capital and 4 mentions for Main Street Capital. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat Main Street Capital's score of 0.72 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Main Street Capital	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ares Capital	12 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is MAIN or ARCC more profitable?

Main Street Capital has a net margin of 89.25% compared to Ares Capital's net margin of 53.71%. Main Street Capital's return on equity of 13.83% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Main Street Capital	89.25%	13.83%	7.37%
Ares Capital	53.71%	12.06%	5.74%

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of MAIN or ARCC?

20.3% of Main Street Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 4.0% of Main Street Capital shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% 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.

Which has more volatility and risk, MAIN or ARCC?

Main Street Capital has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Capital has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor MAIN or ARCC?

Ares Capital received 8 more outperform votes than Main Street Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.35% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote while only 56.80% of users gave Main Street Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Main Street Capital	Outperform Votes 401 56.80%	Underperform Votes 305 43.20%
Ares Capital	Outperform Votes 409 62.35%	Underperform Votes 247 37.65%

Summary

Ares Capital beats Main Street Capital on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.