Critical Contrast: Second Street Capital (OTCMKTS:CTON) and M/I Homes (NYSE:MHO)

Second Street Capital (OTCMKTS:CTON – Get Rating) and M/I Homes (NYSE:MHO – Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Second Street Capital and M/I Homes, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Second Street Capital	0	0	0	0	N/A
M/I Homes	0	0	1	0	3.00

M/I Homes has a consensus target price of $100.00, indicating a potential upside of 118.34%. Given M/I Homes’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe M/I Homes is more favorable than Second Street Capital.

Risk & Volatility

Second Street Capital has a beta of 21.2, suggesting that its stock price is 2,020% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, M/I Homes has a beta of 1.89, suggesting that its stock price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Second Street Capital and M/I Homes’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Second Street Capital	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
M/I Homes	$3.75 billion	0.35	$396.87 million	$14.81	3.09

M/I Homes has higher revenue and earnings than Second Street Capital.

Profitability

This table compares Second Street Capital and M/I Homes’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Second Street Capital	N/A	N/A	N/A
M/I Homes	11.23%	26.32%	13.46%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.6% of M/I Homes shares are owned by institutional investors. 71.9% of Second Street Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of M/I Homes shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

M/I Homes beats Second Street Capital on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Second Street Capital

(Get Rating)

Second Street Capital, Inc. operates as a specialty finance company in the United States. It provides asset based lending to small and medium sized businesses, export trading companies, and small and medium sized homebuilders, developers, and investors. The company offers revenue participation asset based and mortgage loans, as well as preferred equity investments and senior secured loans. It also makes and manages investments in qualified real estate related assets as a principal and on behalf of institutional clients. The company was formerly known as Calton, Inc. and changed its name to Second Street Capital, Inc. in November 2011. Second Street Capital, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

About M/I Homes

(Get Rating)

M/I Homes, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a builder of single-family homes in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The company operates through Northern Homebuilding, Southern Homebuilding, and Financial Services segments. It designs, constructs, markets, and sells single-family homes and attached townhomes to first-time, millennial, move-up, empty-nester, and luxury buyers under the M/I Homes brand name. The company also purchases undeveloped land to develop into developed lots for the construction of single-family homes, as well as for sale to others. In addition, it originates and sells mortgages; and serves as a title insurance agent by providing title insurance policies, examination, and closing services to purchasers of its homes. The company was formerly known as M/I Schottenstein Homes, Inc. and changed its name to M/I Homes, Inc. in January 2004. M/I Homes, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.