Critical Contrast: Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) versus MDB Capital (NASDAQ:MDBH)

Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) and MDB Capital (NASDAQ:MDBH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.3% of MDB Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 55.8% of MDB Capital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Carlyle Secured Lending has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MDB Capital has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Carlyle Secured Lending and MDB Capital”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carlyle Secured Lending	$255.57 million	3.09	$69.97 million	$0.51	22.49
MDB Capital	$4.91 million	5.46	-$21.25 million	($2.18)	-1.19

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Carlyle Secured Lending and MDB Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carlyle Secured Lending	0	4	3	0	2.43
MDB Capital	1	0	0	0	1.00

Carlyle Secured Lending currently has a consensus price target of $12.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.98%. Given Carlyle Secured Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Carlyle Secured Lending is more favorable than MDB Capital.

Profitability

This table compares Carlyle Secured Lending and MDB Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carlyle Secured Lending	14.26%	8.85%	3.90%
MDB Capital	N/A	-39.77%	-38.48%

Summary

Carlyle Secured Lending beats MDB Capital on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Carlyle Secured Lending

Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. is business development company specializing in first lien debt, senior secured loans, second lien senior secured loan unsecured debt, mezzanine debt and investments in equities. It specializes in directly investing. It specializes in middle market. It targets healthcare and pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, high tech industries, business services, software, beverage food and tobacco, hotel gamming and leisure, banking finance insurance and in real estate sector. The fund seeks to invest across United States of America, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, and United Kingdom. It invests in companies with EBITDA between $25 million and $100 million.

About MDB Capital

MDB Capital Holdings, LLC, through its subsidiaries, primarily operates as a broker-dealer. The company operates through two segments, Broker Dealer & Intellectual Property Service, and Technology Development. The Broker Dealer & Intellectual Property Service segment operates as a full-service broker dealer that focuses on conducting private and public securities offerings, as well as providing research services for investment banking due diligence. The Technology Development segment engages in the synthetic biology technology development business. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Addison, Texas.