Head to Head Analysis: Rand Capital (NASDAQ:RAND) & Crescent Capital BDC (NASDAQ:CCAP)

Crescent Capital BDC (NASDAQ:CCAP) and Rand Capital (NASDAQ:RAND) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Crescent Capital BDC and Rand Capital”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crescent Capital BDC	$167.29 million	2.45	$34.51 million	$0.41	27.12
Rand Capital	-$7.62 million	-3.97	-$8.04 million	($3.10)	-3.29

Crescent Capital BDC has higher revenue and earnings than Rand Capital. Rand Capital 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.

Risk and Volatility

Crescent Capital BDC has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rand Capital has a beta of 0.1, indicating that its share price is 90% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Crescent Capital BDC and Rand Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crescent Capital BDC	1	3	2	0	2.17
Rand Capital	1	0	0	0	1.00

Crescent Capital BDC presently has a consensus price target of $13.90, indicating a potential upside of 25.00%. Given Crescent Capital BDC’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Crescent Capital BDC is more favorable than Rand Capital.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

49.5% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Crescent Capital BDC shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 68.2% of Rand Capital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Crescent Capital BDC pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.2%. Rand Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.4%. Crescent Capital BDC pays out 331.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Rand Capital pays out -37.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crescent Capital BDC has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Crescent Capital BDC is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Crescent Capital BDC and Rand Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crescent Capital BDC	9.26%	9.34%	4.04%
Rand Capital	-162.06%	5.87%	5.75%

Summary

Crescent Capital BDC beats Rand Capital on 14 of the 17 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 Rand Capital

Rand Capital Corporation is a business development company specializing in subordinated debt with warrants or preferred equity and venture capital investments. Within private equity, the firm specializing in capital growth and lower middle market investments. Within venture capital, it specializing in early to late-stage private businesses. It does not prefer to invest in real estate sector. It prefers to invest in software, professional services, manufacturing, consumer, healthcare, automotive and public d stocks. It prefers to invest in East or Midwest U.S. operations sectors. It typically invests between $0.75 million and $5 million with initial target size of $1.5 million. It seeks to invest in companies having more than $2 million in revenue or having excess of $1.5 million and up to $5 million in EBITDA. It prefers to be a minority stake and seeks to take a Board seat in its portfolio companies. It typically holds its investments for a period up to five years.