Crescent Capital BDC (NASDAQ:CCAP – Get Free Report) and CION Investment (NYSE:CION – Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
49.5% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.0% of CION Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of CION Investment shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Risk & Volatility
Crescent Capital BDC has a beta of 0.59, suggesting that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CION Investment has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Crescent Capital BDC | 9.26% | 9.34% | 4.04% |
| CION Investment | -0.41% | 11.96% | 4.64% |
Dividends
Crescent Capital BDC pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.8%. CION Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.3%. Crescent Capital BDC pays out 409.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CION Investment pays out -3,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crescent Capital BDC has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and CION Investment has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. CION Investment is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Crescent Capital BDC and CION Investment, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Crescent Capital BDC | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2.17 |
| CION Investment | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.33 |
Crescent Capital BDC currently has a consensus target price of $14.30, indicating a potential upside of 25.77%. CION Investment has a consensus target price of $6.50, indicating a potential downside of 0.99%. Given Crescent Capital BDC’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Crescent Capital BDC is more favorable than CION Investment.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Crescent Capital BDC and CION Investment”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Crescent Capital BDC | $167.29 million | 2.50 | $34.51 million | $0.41 | 27.73 |
| CION Investment | $240.82 million | 1.36 | -$20.63 million | ($0.04) | -164.13 |
Crescent Capital BDC has higher earnings, but lower revenue than CION Investment. CION Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crescent Capital BDC, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Crescent Capital BDC beats CION Investment on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Crescent Capital BDC
Crescent Capital BDC, Inc. is as a business development company private equity / buyouts and loan fund. It specializes in directly investing. It specializes in middle market. The fund seeks to invest in United States.
About CION Investment
CION Investment Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in investments in senior secured loans, including unitranche loans, First Lien, second lien loans, long-term subordinated loans, and mezzanine loans; equity interests such as warrants or options; and corporate bonds; and other debt securities in middle-market companies. The firm invests in growth capital, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, market/product expansion, refinancing and recapitalization. The fund also invests up to 30 percent of their assets opportunistically in other types of investments, including the securities of larger public companies and foreign securities. It also makes investments in the secondary loan market. The fund does not invest in start-up companies, turnaround situations, or companies with speculative business plans. The fund prefers to invest in high tech industries, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, business services, media, chemicals, plastic, rubber, telecommunication, consumer services, advertising, printing and publishing, consumer goods, durables, diversified financials, and other industries. It also invests in homebuilding, restaurants, beverage and tobacco bars, broadcasting, distributors, Non-durable good distribution, food beverage and tobacco, energy, oil gas and consumables fuels, insurance, aerospace and defense, industrial machinery, paper and forest product machinery, information technology, metals and mining, and real estate. It primarily seeks to invest in the United States. The fund seeks to invest between $5 million and $50 million in companies with an EBITDA between $25 million and $75 million with average targeted hold of $25 million. It also purchases minority interests in the form of common or preferred equity in the target companies, typically in conjunction with its debt investments or through a co-investment with a financial sponsor. The fund seeks to exit its investments through an initial public offering of common stock, a merger, a sale, or other recapitalization.
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