Contrasting Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) & Hays (OTCMKTS:HAYPY)

Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) and Hays (OTCMKTS:HAYPY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Carlyle Secured Lending and Hays’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carlyle Secured Lending	40.69%	12.60%	5.77%
Hays	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Carlyle Secured Lending has a beta of 1.57, suggesting that its stock price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hays has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Carlyle Secured Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.3%. Hays pays an annual dividend of $0.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Carlyle Secured Lending pays out 98.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Carlyle Secured Lending and Hays, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carlyle Secured Lending	2	1	0	0	1.33
Hays	0	0	0	1	4.00

Carlyle Secured Lending currently has a consensus price target of $17.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.76%. Given Carlyle Secured Lending’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Carlyle Secured Lending is more favorable than Hays.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Carlyle Secured Lending and Hays”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carlyle Secured Lending	$99.28 million	8.79	$92.28 million	$1.62	10.57
Hays	$8.75 billion	0.18	-$6.17 million	N/A	N/A

Carlyle Secured Lending has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Hays.

Summary

Carlyle Secured Lending beats Hays on 10 of the 14 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 Hays

Hays plc engages in the provision of recruitment services in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. The company provides qualified, professional, and skilled recruitment in permanent, temporary, and contractor formats to public and private sectors. It offers its recruitment services in the specialisms, such as technology, accountancy and finance, engineering, construction and property, office support, life sciences, sales and marketing, and others. Hays plc was founded in 1968 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.