Analyzing Baltic International USA (OTCMKTS:BISA) and Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD)

Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) and Baltic International USA (OTCMKTS:BISA) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 29.4% of Baltic International USA shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Carlyle Secured Lending has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Baltic International USA has a beta of -1.17, indicating that its stock price is 217% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Carlyle Secured Lending and Baltic International USA, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carlyle Secured Lending	0	5	3	0	2.38
Baltic International USA	0	0	0	0	0.00

Carlyle Secured Lending presently has a consensus price target of $13.20, indicating a potential upside of 16.92%. Given Carlyle Secured Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Carlyle Secured Lending is more favorable than Baltic International USA.

Profitability

This table compares Carlyle Secured Lending and Baltic International USA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carlyle Secured Lending	27.38%	8.56%	3.90%
Baltic International USA	N/A	N/A	-806.45%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Carlyle Secured Lending and Baltic International USA”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carlyle Secured Lending	$255.57 million	3.12	$69.97 million	$1.02	11.07
Baltic International USA	N/A	N/A	-$30,000.00	($0.01)	-0.03

Carlyle Secured Lending has higher revenue and earnings than Baltic International USA. Baltic International USA is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Carlyle Secured Lending, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Carlyle Secured Lending beats Baltic International USA on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Carlyle Secured Lending

Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. is business development company specializing in first lien debt, senior secured loans, second lien senior secured loan unsecured debt, mezzanine debt and investments in equities. It specializes in directly investing. It specializes in middle market. It targets healthcare and pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, high tech industries, business services, software, beverage food and tobacco, hotel gamming and leisure, banking finance insurance and in real estate sector. The fund seeks to invest across United States of America, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, and United Kingdom. It invests in companies with EBITDA between $25 million and $100 million.

About Baltic International USA

Baltic International USA, Inc. does not have significant operations. It intends to investigate and acquire a target company or business seeking to become a publicly held corporation. The company was incorporated in 1991 and is based in Houston, Texas.