Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) and Portman Ridge Finance (NASDAQ:PTMN) Head to Head Survey

Portman Ridge Finance (NASDAQ:PTMN) and Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Portman Ridge Finance and Artisan Partners Asset Management, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Portman Ridge Finance	0	1	0	0	2.00
Artisan Partners Asset Management	0	5	1	0	2.17

Portman Ridge Finance currently has a consensus price target of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 83.25%. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a consensus price target of $44.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.55%. Given Portman Ridge Finance’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Portman Ridge Finance is more favorable than Artisan Partners Asset Management.

Risk & Volatility

Portman Ridge Finance has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Artisan Partners Asset Management has a beta of 1.76, meaning that its stock price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Portman Ridge Finance and Artisan Partners Asset Management”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Portman Ridge Finance	-$2.85 million	-35.43	-$5.93 million	($0.93)	-8.22
Artisan Partners Asset Management	$1.20 billion	2.46	$290.32 million	$4.01	9.10

Artisan Partners Asset Management has higher revenue and earnings than Portman Ridge Finance. Portman Ridge Finance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Artisan Partners Asset Management, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Portman Ridge Finance and Artisan Partners Asset Management’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Portman Ridge Finance	-15.92%	11.49%	4.54%
Artisan Partners Asset Management	24.26%	73.73%	21.39%

Dividends

Portman Ridge Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 24.6%. Artisan Partners Asset Management pays an annual dividend of $4.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.1%. Portman Ridge Finance pays out -202.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Artisan Partners Asset Management pays out 100.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Portman Ridge Finance is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.1% of Portman Ridge Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.5% of Artisan Partners Asset Management shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Portman Ridge Finance shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of Artisan Partners Asset Management shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Artisan Partners Asset Management beats Portman Ridge Finance on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Portman Ridge Finance

Portman Ridge Finance Corporation is a business development company specializing in investments in unitranche loans (including last out), first lien loans, second lien loans, subordinated debt, equity co-investment, mezzanine, buyout in middle market companies. It also makes acquisitions in businesses complementary to the firm's business. It primarily invests in healthcare, cargo transport, manufacturing, industrial & environmental services, logistics & distribution, media & telecommunications, real estate, education, automotive, agriculture, aerospace/defense, packaging, electronics, finance, non-durable consumer, consumer products, business services, utilities, insurance, and food and beverage sectors. The fund typically invests $1 million to $20 million in its portfolio companies. It provides senior secured term loans from $2 million to $20 million maturing in five to seven years; second lien term loans from $5 million to $15 million maturing in six to eight years; senior unsecured loans $5 million to $23 million maturing in six to eight years; mezzanine loans from $5 million to $15 million maturing in seven to ten years; and equity investments from $1 to $5 million. The fund targets the companies with EBITDA between $5 million and $25 million. While investing in debt securities, it invests in those middle market firms with EBITDA between $10 million and $50 million and/or total debt between $25 million and $150 million. It invests in minority, and majority or control equity positions alongside its private equity sponsor partners.

About Artisan Partners Asset Management

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. is publicly owned investment manager. It provides its services to pension and profit sharing plans, trusts, endowments, foundations, charitable organizations, government entities, private funds and non-U.S. funds, as well as mutual funds, non-U.S. funds and collective trusts. It manages separate client-focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It invests in growth and value stocks of companies across all market capitalization. For fixed income component of its portfolio the firm invests in non-investment grade corporate bonds and secured and unsecured loans. It employs fundamental analysis to create its portfolios. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1994 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with additional offices in Atlanta, Georgia; New York City; San Francisco, California; Leawood, Kansas; and London, United Kingdom.