Head to Head Survey: Guild (NYSE:GHLD) and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL)

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guild	-5.95%	3.57%	1.27%
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	46.95%	11.91%	4.89%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guild	$655.19 million	1.26	-$39.01 million	($0.65)	-20.77
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$161.76 million	5.88	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

17.5% of Guild shares are held by institutional investors. 78.0% of Guild shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guild	1	1	2	0	2.25
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50

Guild currently has a consensus target price of $15.25, suggesting a potential upside of 12.96%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a consensus target price of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 6.69%. Given Guild’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Guild is more favorable than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending.

Summary

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending beats Guild on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Guild

Guild Holdings Company originates, sells, and services residential mortgage loans in the United States. It operates in two segments, Origination and Servicing. The company offers residential mortgages through retail and correspondent channels. Guild Holdings Company was incorporated in 1960 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

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.