Contrasting Horizon Technology Finance (NASDAQ:HRZN) & TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC (NYSE:TPVG)

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC (NYSE:TPVG) and Horizon Technology Finance (NASDAQ:HRZN) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC and Horizon Technology Finance, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	2	5	0	0	1.71
Horizon Technology Finance	3	2	1	0	1.67

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC presently has a consensus target price of $6.25, suggesting a potential upside of 1.30%. Horizon Technology Finance has a consensus target price of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.86%. Given Horizon Technology Finance’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Horizon Technology Finance is more favorable than TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.8% of TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 4.9% of Horizon Technology Finance shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Horizon Technology Finance shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC and Horizon Technology Finance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	36.02%	12.88%	5.76%
Horizon Technology Finance	-24.19%	15.01%	6.02%

Risk and Volatility

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC has a beta of 1.35, indicating that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Horizon Technology Finance has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.9%. Horizon Technology Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 20.5%. TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC pays out 108.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Horizon Technology Finance pays out -197.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Horizon Technology Finance is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC and Horizon Technology Finance”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC	$108.65 million	2.29	$32.05 million	$0.85	7.26
Horizon Technology Finance	$99.92 million	2.86	-$5.63 million	($0.67)	-9.60

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC has higher revenue and earnings than Horizon Technology Finance. Horizon Technology Finance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC beats Horizon Technology Finance on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in venture capital-backed companies at the growth stage investments. It also provides debt financing to venture growth space companies which includes growth capital loans, secured and customized loans, equipment financings, revolving loans and direct equity investments. The fund seeks to invest in e-commerce, entertainment, technology and life sciences sector. Within technology the areas of focus include: Security, wireless communication equipments, network system and software, business applications software, conferencing equipments/services .big data, cloud computing, data storage, electronics, energy efficiency, hardware, information services, internet and media, networking, semiconductors, software, software as a service, and other technology related subsectors and within life sciences the areas of focus include: biotechnology, bio fuels/bio mass, diagnostic testing and bioinformatics, drug delivery, drug discovery, healthcare information systems, healthcare services, medical, surgical and therapeutic devices, pharmaceuticals and other life science related subsectors. Within growth capital loans it invests between $5 million and $50 million, for equipment financings it invests between $5 million and $25 million, for revolving loans it invests between $1 million and $25 million, and for direct equity investments it may invest between $0.1 million and $5 million (generally not exceeding 5% of the company’s total equity). The debt financing products are typically structured as lines of credit and it invests through warrants and secured loans. It targeted returns between 10% and 18%. It does not take board seat in the company.

About Horizon Technology Finance

Horizon Technology Finance Corporation is a business development company specializing in lending and and investing in development-stage investments. It focuses on making secured debt and venture lending investments to venture capital backed companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, cleantech and sustainability industries. It seeks to invest in companies in the United States.