Analyzing Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) & SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC)

SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Dividends

SLR Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.7%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.6%. SLR Investment pays out 99.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays out 115.8% 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 ratings for SLR Investment and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SLR Investment	2	3	2	1	2.25
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	1	2	6	0	2.56

SLR Investment currently has a consensus target price of $16.04, indicating a potential upside of 4.47%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a consensus target price of $29.13, indicating a potential upside of 9.66%. Given Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is more favorable than SLR Investment.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SLR Investment and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SLR Investment	$232.43 million	N/A	$95.76 million	$1.65	9.30
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	$1.33 billion	4.63	$694.10 million	$2.66	9.98

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has higher revenue and earnings than SLR Investment. SLR Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares SLR Investment and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SLR Investment	41.00%	8.98%	3.56%
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	42.38%	11.85%	5.32%

Volatility & Risk

SLR Investment has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.3% of SLR Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.5% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.8% of SLR Investment shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund beats SLR Investment on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SLR Investment

SLR Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in secured debt (first lien unitranche and second lien), subordinated (unsecured) debt, minority equity, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, general refinancing, growth capital and strategic income-oriented control equity investments in leveraged middle market companies. The fund invests in aerospace and defense; air freight & logistics; asset management; automotive; banking; beverage, food and tobacco; building products; buildings and real estate; broadcasting and entertainment; cargo transport; commercial services and supplies; communications equipment; chemicals, plastics and rubber; containers, packaging and glass; construction & engineering; diversified/conglomerate manufacturing; consumer Finance; distributors; diversified/conglomerate services; diversified financial services; diversified real estate activities; food products; Footwear; Education Services; diversified telecommunications services; electronics; farming and agriculture; finance; grocery; health care equipment and supplies; health care facilities; education and childcare; home and office furnishing, durable consumer products; hotels, motels, inns and gaming; insurance; restaurants, leisure, amusement, and entertainment; leisure equipment tolls and services, media, multiline retail, multi sector holdings; paper and forest products; personal products; professional services, research and consulting services, software; specialty retail; textiles apparel and luxury goods, thrifts and mortgage finance, trading companies and distributors, utilities, and wireless telecommunication services; industrial conglomerates; internet software and services, IT services, machinery; mining, steel, iron, and non-precious metals; oil and gas; personal, food and miscellaneous services; printing and publishing; retail stores; telecommunications; textiles and leather; and utilities. It also invests in life sciences with focus on specialty pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech, health Care Providers and services; health Care technology, enabling technologies and tools. The fund primarily invests in United States. The fund’s investments generally range between $5 million and $100 million. The fund invests in companies with revenues between $50 million and $1 billion and EBITDA between $15 million and $100 million. It invests in the form of senior secured loans, mezzanine loans, and equity securities. It may also seek investments in thinly traded public companies and also make secondary investments. The fund makes non-control equity investments. It primarily exits within three years of the initial capital commitment.

About Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is business development company and a Delaware statutory trust formed on March 26, 2018, and structured as an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment Fund. On October 26, 2018, the fund elected to be regulated as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the 1940 Act). In addition, the Fund elected to be treated for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as a regulated investment company (RIC), as defined under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code). The fund also intends to continue to comply with the requirements prescribed by the Code in order to maintain tax treatment as a RIC. The fund's investment objectives are to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, long-term capital appreciation. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective primarily through originated loans, equity and other securities, including syndicated loans, of private U.S. companies, specifically small and middle market companies, typically in the form of first lien senior secured and unitranche loans (including first out/last out loans), and to a lesser extent, second lien, third lien, unsecured and subordinated loans and other debt and equity securities.