Head-To-Head Analysis: CION Investment (NYSE:CION) versus Blue Owl Capital Co. III (NYSE:OBDE)

CION Investment (NYSE:CION) and Blue Owl Capital Co. III (NYSE:OBDE) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

32.0% of CION Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of CION Investment shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 90.8% of Blue Owl Capital Co. III 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 for CION Investment and Blue Owl Capital Co. III, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CION Investment	1	1	0	0	1.50
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	0	0	1	0	3.00

CION Investment presently has a consensus price target of $11.50, suggesting a potential upside of 30.67%. Blue Owl Capital Co. III has a consensus price target of $16.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.15%. Given CION Investment’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CION Investment is more favorable than Blue Owl Capital Co. III.

Profitability

This table compares CION Investment and Blue Owl Capital Co. III’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CION Investment	31.21%	11.49%	5.04%
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	45.35%	11.52%	5.22%

Dividends

CION Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.4%. Blue Owl Capital Co. III pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.9%. CION Investment pays out 228.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Blue Owl Capital Co. III pays out 79.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares CION Investment and Blue Owl Capital Co. III”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CION Investment	$45.95 million	10.16	$95.31 million	$0.63	13.97
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	$244.17 million	7.14	$271.96 million	$1.76	8.03

Blue Owl Capital Co. III has higher revenue and earnings than CION Investment. Blue Owl Capital Co. III is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CION Investment, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Blue Owl Capital Co. III beats CION Investment on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CION Investment

CION Investment Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in investments in senior secured loans, including unitranche loans, First Lien, second lien loans, long-term subordinated loans, and mezzanine loans; equity interests such as warrants or options; and corporate bonds; and other debt securities in middle-market companies. The firm invests in growth capital, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, market/product expansion, refinancing and recapitalization. The fund also invests up to 30 percent of their assets opportunistically in other types of investments, including the securities of larger public companies and foreign securities. It also makes investments in the secondary loan market. The fund does not invest in start-up companies, turnaround situations, or companies with speculative business plans. The fund prefers to invest in high tech industries, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, business services, media, chemicals, plastic, rubber, telecommunication, consumer services, advertising, printing and publishing, consumer goods, durables, diversified financials, and other industries. It also invests in homebuilding, restaurants, beverage and tobacco bars, broadcasting, distributors, Non-durable good distribution, food beverage and tobacco, energy, oil gas and consumables fuels, insurance, aerospace and defense, industrial machinery, paper and forest product machinery, information technology, metals and mining, and real estate. It primarily seeks to invest in the United States. The fund seeks to invest between $5 million and $50 million in companies with an EBITDA between $25 million and $75 million with average targeted hold of $25 million. It also purchases minority interests in the form of common or preferred equity in the target companies, typically in conjunction with its debt investments or through a co-investment with a financial sponsor. The fund seeks to exit its investments through an initial public offering of common stock, a merger, a sale, or other recapitalization.

About Blue Owl Capital Co. III

Blue Owl Capital Corporation is a specialty finance company focused on lending to U.S. middle-market companies. Blue Owl Capital Corporation is based in NEW YORK.