Financial Survey: Blackrock Tcp Capital (NASDAQ:TCPC) & Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL)

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) and Blackrock Tcp Capital (NASDAQ:TCPC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	36.83%	11.13%	4.83%
Blackrock Tcp Capital	-4.20%	15.27%	6.15%

Risk and Volatility

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackrock Tcp Capital has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Blackrock Tcp Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	4	1	0	2.20
Blackrock Tcp Capital	2	1	0	1	2.00

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending currently has a consensus price target of $15.75, indicating a potential upside of 16.58%. Blackrock Tcp Capital has a consensus price target of $6.50, indicating a potential upside of 25.48%. Given Blackrock Tcp Capital’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Blackrock Tcp Capital is more favorable than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Blackrock Tcp Capital”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$224.04 million	2.98	$116.32 million	$1.53	8.83
Blackrock Tcp Capital	$259.44 million	1.69	-$63.14 million	($0.13)	-39.85

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Blackrock Tcp Capital. Blackrock Tcp Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.3%. Blackrock Tcp Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 19.3%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays out 117.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Blackrock Tcp Capital pays out -769.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Blackrock Tcp Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Blackrock Tcp Capital beats Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Blackrock Tcp Capital

BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. is a business development company specializing in direct equity and debt investments in middle-market, small businesses, debt securities, senior secured loans, junior loans, originated loans, mezzanine, senior debt instruments, bonds, and secondary-market investments. It typically invests in communication services, public relations services, television, wireless telecommunication services, apparel, textile mills, restaurants, retailing, energy, oil and gas extraction, Patent owners and Lessors, Federal and Federally- Sponsored Credit agencies, insurance, hospital and healthcare centers, Biotechnology, engineering services, heavy electrical equipment, tax accounting, scientific and related consulting services, charter freight air transportation, Information technology consulting, application hosting services, software diagram and design, computer aided design, communication equipment, electronics manufacturing equipment, computer components, chemicals. It seeks to invest in the United States. The fund typically invests between $10 million and $35 million in companies with enterprise values between $100 million and $1500 million including complex situations. It prefers to make equity investments in companies for an ownership stake.