Analyzing Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) and UWM (NYSE:UWMC)

UWM (NYSE:UWMC) and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for UWM and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UWM	2	6	2	0	2.00
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50

UWM presently has a consensus price target of $5.59, indicating a potential downside of 12.85%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a consensus price target of $18.50, indicating a potential upside of 5.41%. Given Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending is more favorable than UWM.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

53.6% of UWM shares are held by institutional investors. 94.2% of UWM shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares UWM and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UWM	0.79%	2.45%	0.59%
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	46.95%	11.91%	4.89%

Dividends

UWM pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.2%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.3%. UWM pays out -210.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares UWM and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UWM	$1.31 billion	0.46	-$13.23 million	($0.19)	-33.76
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$161.76 million	5.95	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has lower revenue, but higher earnings than UWM.

Summary

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending beats UWM on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About UWM

UWM Holdings Corporation engages in the residential mortgage lending business in the United States. The company offers mortgage loans through wholesale channel. It originates primarily conforming and government loans. UWM Holdings Corporation was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Pontiac, Michigan.

About Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is a specialty finance company focused primarily on investing in senior secured loans to private equity-owned U.S. middle market companies. It has elected to be regulated as a business development company. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is based in NEW YORK.