Main Street Capital (MAIN) Competitors

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

Which has better valuation and earnings, ARCC or MAIN?

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
Ares Capital	$1.76B	8.58	$1.52B	$2.60	8.99
Main Street Capital	$500.39M	10.72	$428.45M	$5.52	11.02

Does the media prefer ARCC or MAIN?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 1 more articles in the media than Main Street Capital. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for Ares Capital and 16 mentions for Main Street Capital. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 0.98 beat Main Street Capital's score of 0.38 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ares Capital	12 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Main Street Capital	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do analysts prefer ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital presently has a consensus price target of $22.29, indicating a potential downside of 4.64%. Main Street Capital has a consensus price target of $48.80, indicating a potential downside of 19.78%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Main Street Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.89
Main Street Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital received 10 more outperform votes than Main Street Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.46% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote while only 56.80% of users gave Main Street Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ares Capital	Outperform Votes 411 62.46%	Underperform Votes 247 37.54%
Main Street Capital	Outperform Votes 401 56.80%	Underperform Votes 305 43.20%

Is ARCC or MAIN a better dividend stock?

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.2%. Main Street Capital pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Ares Capital pays out 73.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Main Street Capital pays out 54.3% 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.

Is ARCC or MAIN 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
Ares Capital	53.71%	12.06%	5.74%
Main Street Capital	89.25%	13.83%	7.37%

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

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.3% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ares Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital has a beta of 1, indicating that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Main Street Capital has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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