Reviewing U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) & Barings Corporate Investors (NYSE:MCI)

Barings Corporate Investors (NYSE:MCI) and U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Barings Corporate Investors and U.S. Global Investors”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barings Corporate Investors	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
U.S. Global Investors	$8.45 million	5.52	-$330,000.00	$0.06	60.00

Barings Corporate Investors has higher earnings, but lower revenue than U.S. Global Investors.

Dividends

Barings Corporate Investors pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. U.S. Global Investors pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. U.S. Global Investors pays out 150.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Volatility & Risk

Barings Corporate Investors has a beta of 0.28, indicating that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, U.S. Global Investors has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Barings Corporate Investors and U.S. Global Investors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barings Corporate Investors	0	0	0	0	0.00
U.S. Global Investors	0	1	0	0	2.00

Institutional and Insider Ownership

23.6% of U.S. Global Investors shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Barings Corporate Investors shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 19.2% of U.S. Global Investors shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Barings Corporate Investors and U.S. Global Investors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barings Corporate Investors	N/A	N/A	N/A
U.S. Global Investors	10.04%	1.86%	1.75%

Summary

U.S. Global Investors beats Barings Corporate Investors on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barings Corporate Investors

Babson Capital Corporate Investors trust is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Barings LLC. It invests in fixed income markets of the United States. The fund seeks to invest in securities of companies operating across diversified sectors. It primarily invests in a portfolio of privately placed, below-investment grade, long term corporate debt obligations. The fund also invests in marketable investment grade debt securities, other marketable debt securities, and marketable common stocks. It was formerly known as Babson Capital Corporate Investors. Babson Capital Corporate Investors trust was formed in 1971 and is domiciled in the United States.

About U.S. Global Investors

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. It primarily provides its services to investment companies. The firm is a large advisory firm, an investment adviser to an investment company which provides portfolio management for investment companies. The firm manages and launches equity/balanced funds, fixed income funds and other funds. It also manages hedge funds. The firm primarily invests in no-load mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is based in San Antonio, Texas.