U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) versus Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) Financial Contrast

Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) and U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Eagle Point Credit has a beta of 0.28, suggesting that its stock price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, U.S. Global Investors has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Eagle Point Credit and U.S. Global Investors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eagle Point Credit	0	2	3	1	2.83
U.S. Global Investors	0	1	0	0	2.00

Eagle Point Credit presently has a consensus target price of $7.46, indicating a potential upside of 66.67%. Given Eagle Point Credit’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Eagle Point Credit is more favorable than U.S. Global Investors.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

19.5% of Eagle Point Credit shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.6% of U.S. Global Investors shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Eagle Point Credit shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 19.2% of U.S. Global Investors shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Eagle Point Credit pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 37.5%. U.S. Global Investors pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Eagle Point Credit pays out 884.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. U.S. Global Investors pays out 150.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

This table compares Eagle Point Credit and U.S. Global Investors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eagle Point Credit	12.33%	13.47%	8.14%
U.S. Global Investors	10.04%	1.86%	1.75%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Eagle Point Credit and U.S. Global Investors”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eagle Point Credit	$179.77 million	3.14	$85.49 million	$0.19	23.55
U.S. Global Investors	$8.45 million	5.00	-$330,000.00	$0.06	54.33

Eagle Point Credit has higher revenue and earnings than U.S. Global Investors. Eagle Point Credit is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than U.S. Global Investors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Eagle Point Credit beats U.S. Global Investors on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Eagle Point Credit

Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. is a closed ended fund launched and managed by Eagle Point Credit Management LLC. It invests in fixed income markets of the United States. The fund invests equity and junior debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations consisting primarily of below investment grade U.S. senior secured loans. Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. was formed on March 24, 2014 and is domiciled in the United States.

About U.S. Global Investors

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. It primarily provides its services to investment companies. The firm is a large advisory firm, an investment adviser to an investment company which provides portfolio management for investment companies. The firm manages and launches equity/balanced funds, fixed income funds and other funds. It also manages hedge funds. The firm primarily invests in no-load mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is based in San Antonio, Texas.