Sixth Street Specialty Lending (TSLX) Competitors

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) and Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE:TSLX) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and profitability.

Is ARCC or TSLX a better dividend stock?

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Sixth Street Specialty Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. Ares Capital pays out 93.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sixth Street Specialty Lending pays out 97.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ares Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is ARCC or TSLX more profitable?

Ares Capital has a net margin of 43.50% compared to Sixth Street Specialty Lending's net margin of 36.59%. Sixth Street Specialty Lending's return on equity of 13.60% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Capital	43.50%	11.05%	5.25%
Sixth Street Specialty Lending	36.59%	13.60%	6.22%

Do analysts rate ARCC or TSLX?

Ares Capital currently has a consensus price target of $22.21, indicating a potential downside of 3.67%. Sixth Street Specialty Lending has a consensus price target of $22.81, indicating a potential downside of 7.66%. Given Ares Capital's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Sixth Street Specialty Lending.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78
Sixth Street Specialty Lending	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media prefer ARCC or TSLX?

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 25 more articles in the media than Sixth Street Specialty Lending. MarketBeat recorded 30 mentions for Ares Capital and 5 mentions for Sixth Street Specialty Lending. Ares Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.06 beat Sixth Street Specialty Lending's score of 1.03 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	19 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Sixth Street Specialty Lending	3 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals & insiders believe in ARCC or TSLX?

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of Sixth Street Specialty Lending shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.2% of Sixth Street Specialty Lending shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, ARCC or TSLX?

Ares Capital has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sixth Street Specialty Lending has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, ARCC or TSLX?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Sixth Street Specialty Lending. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sixth Street 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
Ares Capital	$2.99B	5.35	$1.52B	$2.05	11.25
Sixth Street Specialty Lending	$482.53M	4.81	$220.02M	$1.89	13.07

Summary

Ares Capital beats Sixth Street Specialty Lending on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.