Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund (MSD) Competitors

Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) and Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund (NYSE:MSD) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, media sentiment, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Is ECC or MSD a better dividend stock?

Eagle Point Credit pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 23.1%. Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.89 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.9%. Eagle Point Credit pays out -420.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in ECC or MSD?

19.5% of Eagle Point Credit shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Eagle Point Credit shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend ECC or MSD?

Eagle Point Credit currently has a consensus target price of $8.67, suggesting a potential upside of 18.97%. Given Eagle Point Credit's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Eagle Point Credit is more favorable than Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eagle Point Credit	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Which has better earnings & valuation, ECC or MSD?

Eagle Point Credit has higher revenue and earnings than Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eagle Point Credit	$179.77M	3.12	$85.49M	-$0.40	-18.21
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Which has more risk and volatility, ECC or MSD?

Eagle Point Credit has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is ECC or MSD more profitable?

Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund has a net margin of 0.00% compared to Eagle Point Credit's net margin of -27.15%. Eagle Point Credit's return on equity of 12.90% beat Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eagle Point Credit	-27.15%	12.90%	8.41%
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A

Does the media refer more to ECC or MSD?

In the previous week, Eagle Point Credit had 8 more articles in the media than Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Eagle Point Credit and 1 mentions for Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund. Eagle Point Credit's average media sentiment score of 0.38 beat Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund's score of -0.97 indicating that Eagle Point Credit is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Eagle Point Credit	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Negative

Summary

Eagle Point Credit beats Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.