Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) & Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT) Critical Contrast

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) and Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Rocket Companies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50
Rocket Companies	6	7	0	0	1.54

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending currently has a consensus target price of $18.50, indicating a potential upside of 6.69%. Rocket Companies has a consensus target price of $10.02, indicating a potential downside of 17.86%. Given Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending is more favorable than Rocket Companies.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	46.95%	11.91%	4.89%
Rocket Companies	-0.41%	-3.63%	-1.47%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

4.6% of Rocket Companies shares are held by institutional investors. 94.1% of Rocket Companies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Rocket Companies’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$161.76 million	5.88	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A
Rocket Companies	$3.80 billion	6.38	-$15.51 million	($0.16)	-76.25

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

Summary

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

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.

About Rocket Companies

Rocket Companies, Inc., a fintech holding company, provides mortgage lending, title and settlement services, and other financial technology services in the United States and Canada. It operates through two segments, Direct to Consumer and Partner Network. The company's solutions include Rocket Mortgage, a mortgage lender; Amrock that provides title insurance, property valuation, and settlement services; Rocket Homes, a home search platform and real estate agent referral network, which offers technology-enabled services to support the home buying and selling experience; and Rocket Loans, an online-based personal loans business. It also offers Core Digital Media, a online marketing platform in the mortgage and personal financial product sectors; Rocket Money, a personal finance app that helps clients manage every aspect of their financial lives; Lendesk, a software services company that provides a point of sale system for mortgage professionals and a loan origination system for private lenders; Rock Connections, a sales and support platform specializing in contact center services; and Rocket Innovation Studio that recruits and mentors top technology talent. In addition, the company originates, closes, sells, and services agency-conforming loans. Rocket Companies, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The company operates as a subsidiary of Rock Holdings Inc.