Stellus Capital Investment (SCM) Competitors

Stellus Capital Investment (NYSE:SCM) and Oaktree Specialty Lending (NASDAQ:OCSL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, community ranking, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, media sentiment and institutional ownership.

Which has more risk and volatility, SCM or OCSL?

Stellus Capital Investment has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oaktree Specialty Lending has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SCM or OCSL?

Oaktree Specialty Lending received 180 more outperform votes than Stellus Capital Investment when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.39% of users gave Oaktree Specialty Lending an outperform vote while only 59.14% of users gave Stellus Capital Investment an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Stellus Capital Investment	Outperform Votes 304 59.14%	Underperform Votes 210 40.86%
Oaktree Specialty Lending	Outperform Votes 484 59.39%	Underperform Votes 331 40.61%

Is SCM or OCSL a better dividend stock?

Stellus Capital Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.9%. Oaktree Specialty Lending pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.5%. Stellus Capital Investment pays out 81.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Oaktree Specialty Lending pays out 305.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Do analysts recommend SCM or OCSL?

Stellus Capital Investment presently has a consensus price target of $13.63, indicating a potential upside of 1.45%. Oaktree Specialty Lending has a consensus price target of $16.75, indicating a potential upside of 10.34%. Given Oaktree Specialty Lending's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Oaktree Specialty Lending is more favorable than Stellus Capital Investment.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stellus Capital Investment	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Oaktree Specialty Lending	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.86

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, SCM or OCSL?

Oaktree Specialty Lending has higher revenue and earnings than Stellus Capital Investment. Stellus Capital Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Oaktree Specialty Lending, 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
Stellus Capital Investment	$50.62M	7.18	$17.53M	$1.96	6.85
Oaktree Specialty Lending	$57.61M	21.67	$57.90M	$0.72	21.08

Is SCM or OCSL more profitable?

Stellus Capital Investment has a net margin of 45.39% compared to Oaktree Specialty Lending's net margin of 15.17%. Stellus Capital Investment's return on equity of 13.49% beat Oaktree Specialty Lending's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stellus Capital Investment	45.39%	13.49%	4.88%
Oaktree Specialty Lending	15.17%	11.91%	5.48%

Does the media prefer SCM or OCSL?

In the previous week, Oaktree Specialty Lending had 3 more articles in the media than Stellus Capital Investment. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Oaktree Specialty Lending and 2 mentions for Stellus Capital Investment. Stellus Capital Investment's average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat Oaktree Specialty Lending's score of 0.54 indicating that Stellus Capital Investment is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Stellus Capital Investment	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Oaktree Specialty Lending	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals and insiders believe in SCM or OCSL?

13.2% of Stellus Capital Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.8% of Oaktree Specialty Lending shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of Stellus Capital Investment shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Oaktree Specialty Lending shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Oaktree Specialty Lending beats Stellus Capital Investment on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.