Head to Head Comparison: DigitalBridge Group (NYSE:DBRG) & Great Elm Capital (NASDAQ:GECC)

DigitalBridge Group (NYSE:DBRG) and Great Elm Capital (NASDAQ:GECC) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for DigitalBridge Group and Great Elm Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DigitalBridge Group	0	0	7	1	3.13
Great Elm Capital	0	0	0	0	N/A

DigitalBridge Group currently has a consensus target price of $19.22, suggesting a potential upside of 50.26%. Given DigitalBridge Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe DigitalBridge Group is more favorable than Great Elm Capital.

Profitability

This table compares DigitalBridge Group and Great Elm Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DigitalBridge Group	26.64%	3.14%	1.14%
Great Elm Capital	27.61%	11.97%	4.89%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares DigitalBridge Group and Great Elm Capital’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DigitalBridge Group	$1.08 billion	2.06	$185.28 million	$1.55	8.25
Great Elm Capital	$15.09 million	6.50	$25.33 million	$2.20	4.72

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

Volatility and Risk

DigitalBridge Group has a beta of 2, meaning that its stock price is 100% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Great Elm Capital has a beta of 1.6, meaning that its stock price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

DigitalBridge Group pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Great Elm Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.5%. DigitalBridge Group pays out 2.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Great Elm Capital pays out 63.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of DigitalBridge Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.8% of Great Elm Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of DigitalBridge Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 10.2% of Great Elm Capital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

DigitalBridge Group beats Great Elm Capital on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DigitalBridge Group

DigitalBridge is an infrastructure investment firm specializing in digital infrastructure assets. They provide services to institutional investors. They primarily invest in data centers, cell towers, fiber networks, small cells, and edge infrastructure. DigitalBridge Group, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida with additional offices in Los Angles, California, and New York New York.

About Great Elm Capital

Great Elm Capital Corp. is a business development company which specializes in loan and mezzanine, middle market investments. It invests in the debt instruments of middle market companies. The fund prefers to invest in media, commercial services and supplies, healthcare, telecommunication services, communications equipment. It typically makes equity investments between $3 million and $10 million in companies with revenues between $3 million and $75 million.