Comparing Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) & KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR)

KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) and Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.3% of KKR & Co. Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.5% of Eagle Point Credit shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.2% of KKR & Co. Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Eagle Point Credit shares are owned 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 breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for KKR & Co. Inc. and Eagle Point Credit, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KKR & Co. Inc.	0	3	12	1	2.88
Eagle Point Credit	1	2	3	0	2.33

KKR & Co. Inc. presently has a consensus price target of $149.00, suggesting a potential upside of 67.59%. Eagle Point Credit has a consensus price target of $6.67, suggesting a potential upside of 84.21%. Given Eagle Point Credit’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Eagle Point Credit is more favorable than KKR & Co. Inc..

Volatility and Risk

KKR & Co. Inc. has a beta of 2.01, indicating that its share price is 101% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eagle Point Credit has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

KKR & Co. Inc. pays an annual dividend of $0.74 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Eagle Point Credit pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 46.4%. KKR & Co. Inc. pays out 31.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eagle Point Credit pays out 884.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. KKR & Co. Inc. has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares KKR & Co. Inc. and Eagle Point Credit’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KKR & Co. Inc.	11.97%	5.57%	0.99%
Eagle Point Credit	12.33%	13.47%	8.14%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares KKR & Co. Inc. and Eagle Point Credit”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KKR & Co. Inc.	$19.46 billion	4.07	$2.37 billion	$2.34	37.99
Eagle Point Credit	$179.77 million	2.54	$85.49 million	$0.19	19.05

KKR & Co. Inc. has higher revenue and earnings than Eagle Point Credit. Eagle Point Credit is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KKR & Co. Inc., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

KKR & Co. Inc. beats Eagle Point Credit on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KKR & Co. Inc.

KKR & Co., Inc. operates as an investment firm. It offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. The firm’s business segments include Asset Management and Insurance Business. The Asset Management segment engages in providing private equity, real assets, credit and liquid strategies, capital markets, and principal activities. The Insurance Business segment offers retirement, life insurance and reinsurance solutions to clients across individual and institutional markets. The company was founded by Henry Kravis, George R. Roberts, and Jerome Kholberg on May 1, 1976 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About Eagle Point Credit

Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. is a closed ended fund launched and managed by Eagle Point Credit Management LLC. It invests in fixed income markets of the United States. The fund invests equity and junior debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations consisting primarily of below investment grade U.S. senior secured loans. Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. was formed on March 24, 2014 and is domiciled in the United States.