Ocwen Financial (NYSE:OCN) & Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) Critical Analysis

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Ocwen Financial and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ocwen Financial	0	1	1	0	2.50
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50

Ocwen Financial currently has a consensus price target of $41.00, suggesting a potential upside of 49.58%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a consensus price target of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 5.65%. Given Ocwen Financial’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Ocwen Financial is more favorable than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ocwen Financial	$1.07 billion	0.20	-$63.70 million	$0.53	51.72
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$82.09 million	11.69	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ocwen Financial	0.63%	13.66%	0.45%
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	46.95%	11.91%	4.89%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.2% of Ocwen Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.6% of Ocwen Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

About Ocwen Financial

Ocwen Financial Corporation, a financial services company, originates and services mortgage loans in the United States, the United States Virgin Islands, India, and the Philippines. It operates through, Servicing and Originations segments. The company provides commercial forward mortgage loan servicing, reverse mortgage servicing, special servicing, and asset management services for to owners of mortgage loans and foreclosed real estate, as well as residential mortgage loan servicing, such as forward and reverse conventional, government-insured, and non-agency loans, including the reverse mortgage loans classified as loans. It also originates and purchases conventional and government-insured residential forward and reverse mortgage loans through its correspondent lending arrangements, broker relationships, and retail channels. It serves primarily under the PHH Mortgage and Liberty Reverse Mortgage brands. Ocwen Financial Corporation was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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.