Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) & Guild (NYSE:GHLD) Financial Contrast

Guild (NYSE:GHLD) and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

17.5% of Guild shares are held by institutional investors. 78.0% of Guild shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guild	$655.19 million	1.27	-$39.01 million	($0.65)	-20.97
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$161.76 million	5.92	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Guild.

Profitability

This table compares Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guild	-5.95%	3.57%	1.27%
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	46.95%	11.91%	4.89%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guild	1	1	2	0	2.25
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50

Guild presently has a consensus price target of $15.25, suggesting a potential upside of 11.89%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a consensus price target of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 5.84%. Given Guild’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Guild is more favorable than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending.

Summary

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending beats Guild on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Guild

Guild Holdings Company originates, sells, and services residential mortgage loans in the United States. It operates in two segments, Origination and Servicing. The company offers residential mortgages through retail and correspondent channels. Guild Holdings Company was incorporated in 1960 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is a specialty finance company focused primarily on investing in senior secured loans to private equity-owned U.S. middle market companies. It has elected to be regulated as a business development company. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is based in NEW YORK.