Contrasting Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) and Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT)

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

Dividends

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.2%. Rocket Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.2%. Rocket Companies pays out 1,165.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50
Rocket Companies	6	8	0	0	1.57

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending currently has a consensus target price of $18.50, indicating a potential upside of 5.11%. Rocket Companies has a consensus target price of $10.60, indicating a potential downside of 22.14%. Given Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly 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	0.43%	-1.05%	-0.43%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Rocket Companies’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$161.76 million	5.96	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A
Rocket Companies	$4.36 billion	6.32	-$15.51 million	$0.11	126.18

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

4.6% of Rocket Companies shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 94.1% of Rocket Companies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending beats Rocket Companies on 9 of the 13 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.