Critical Comparison: Sound Point Meridian Capital (NYSE:SPMC) & Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG)

Sound Point Meridian Capital (NYSE:SPMC) and Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

55.9% of Carlyle Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Sound Point Meridian Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.4% of Carlyle Group 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Sound Point Meridian Capital and Carlyle Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sound Point Meridian Capital	1	2	1	0	2.00
Carlyle Group	1	9	7	0	2.35

Sound Point Meridian Capital presently has a consensus price target of $16.10, suggesting a potential upside of 44.01%. Carlyle Group has a consensus price target of $62.00, suggesting a potential upside of 32.23%. Given Sound Point Meridian Capital’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Sound Point Meridian Capital is more favorable than Carlyle Group.

Profitability

This table compares Sound Point Meridian Capital and Carlyle Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sound Point Meridian Capital	N/A	N/A	N/A
Carlyle Group	13.46%	20.95%	5.28%

Risk and Volatility

Sound Point Meridian Capital has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Carlyle Group has a beta of 1.84, meaning that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sound Point Meridian Capital and Carlyle Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sound Point Meridian Capital	$72.51 million	3.16	-$125.87 million	($6.14)	-1.82
Carlyle Group	$4.78 billion	3.53	$808.70 million	$1.46	32.11

Carlyle Group has higher revenue and earnings than Sound Point Meridian Capital. Sound Point Meridian Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Carlyle Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Sound Point Meridian Capital pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 21.5%. Carlyle Group pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Sound Point Meridian Capital pays out -39.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Carlyle Group pays out 95.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Carlyle Group has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Sound Point Meridian Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Carlyle Group beats Sound Point Meridian Capital on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sound Point Meridian Capital

Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc. is an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end management investment company. Its investment objective is to generate high current income, with a secondary objective to generate capital appreciation, by investing primarily in third-party collateralized loan obligation equity and mezzanine tranches. Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc. is based in NEW YORK.

About Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group Inc. is an investment firm specializing in direct and fund of fund investments. Within direct investments, it specializes in management-led/ Leveraged buyouts, privatizations, divestitures, strategic minority equity investments, structured credit, global distressed and corporate opportunities, small and middle market, equity private placements, consolidations and buildups, senior debt, mezzanine and leveraged finance, and venture and growth capital financings, seed/startup, early venture, emerging growth, turnaround, mid venture, late venture, PIPES. The firm invests across four segments which include Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies, and Solutions. The firm typically invests in industrial, agribusiness, ecological sector, fintech, airports, parking, Plastics, Rubber, diversified natural resources, minerals, farming, aerospace, defense, automotive, consumer, retail, industrial, infrastructure, energy, power, healthcare, software, software enabled services, semiconductors, communications infrastructure, financial technology, utilities, gaming, systems and related supply chain, electronic systems, systems, oil and gas, processing facilities, power generation assets, technology, systems, real estate, financial services, transportation, business services, telecommunications, media, and logistics sectors. Within the industrial sector, the firm invests in manufacturing, building products, packaging, chemicals, metals and mining, forestry and paper products, and industrial consumables and services. In consumer and retail sectors, it invests in food and beverage, retail, restaurants, consumer products, domestic consumption, consumer services, personal care products, direct marketing, and education. Within aerospace, defense, business services, and government services sectors, it seeks to invest in defense electronics, manufacturing and services, government contracting and services, information technology, distribution companies. In telecommunication and media sectors, it invests in cable TV, directories, publishing, entertainment and content delivery services, wireless infrastructure/services, fixed line networks, satellite services, broadband and Internet, and infrastructure. Within real estate, the firm invests in office, hotel, industrial, retail, for sale residential, student housing, hospitality, multifamily residential, homebuilding and building products, and senior living sectors. The firm seeks to make investments in growing business including those with overleveraged balance sheets. The firm seeks to hold its investments for four to six years. In the healthcare sector, it invests in healthcare services, outsourcing services, companies running clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, managed care, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical related services, healthcare IT, medical, products, and devices. It seeks to invest in companies based in Sub-Saharan focusing on Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Botswana, Nigeria, Uganda, West Africa, North Africa and South Africa focusing on Tanzania and Zambia; Asia focusing on Pakistan, India, South East Asia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan; Australia; New Zealand; Europe focusing on France, Italy, Denmark, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Benelux , Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, and Russia; Middle East focusing on Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and UAE; North America focusing on United States which further invest in Southeastern United States, Texas, Boston, San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest; Asia Pacific; Soviet Union, Central-Eastern Europe, and Israel; Nordic region; and South America focusing on Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. The firm seeks to invest in food, financial, and healthcare industries in Western China. In the real estate sector, the firm seeks to invest in various locations across Europe focusing on France and Central Europe, United States, Asia focusing on China, and Latin America. It typically invests between $1 million and $50 million for venture investments and between $50 million and $2 billion for buyouts in companies with enterprise value of between $31.57 million and $1000 million and sales value of $10 million and $500 million. It seeks to invest in companies with market capitalization greater than $50 million and EBITDA between $5 million to $25 million. It prefers to take a majority or a minority stake. While investing in Japan, it does not invest in companies with more than 1,000 employees and prefers companies' worth between $100 million and $150 million. The firm originates, structures, and acts as lead equity investor in the transactions. The Carlyle Group Inc. was founded in 1987 and is based in Washington, District of Columbia with additional offices in 21 countries across 5 continents (North America, South America, Asia, Australia and Europe).