Comparing SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) & Brookfield (NYSE:BN)

SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) and Brookfield (NYSE:BN) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares SLR Investment and Brookfield’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SLR Investment	35.20%	7.96%	3.09%
Brookfield	1.85%	3.93%	1.22%

Dividends

SLR Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.1%. Brookfield pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. SLR Investment pays out 91.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Brookfield pays out 50.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brookfield has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

SLR Investment has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookfield has a beta of 1.56, indicating that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for SLR Investment and Brookfield, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SLR Investment	2	4	2	0	2.00
Brookfield	1	1	10	1	2.85

SLR Investment presently has a consensus target price of $14.10, indicating a potential upside of 26.23%. Brookfield has a consensus target price of $57.40, indicating a potential upside of 51.16%. Given Brookfield’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield is more favorable than SLR Investment.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

35.3% of SLR Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.6% of Brookfield shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.1% of SLR Investment shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.0% of Brookfield shares are owned by company 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares SLR Investment and Brookfield”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SLR Investment	$85.42 million	7.13	$92.54 million	$1.35	8.27
Brookfield	$77.06 billion	1.21	$1.31 billion	$0.55	69.04

Brookfield has higher revenue and earnings than SLR Investment. SLR Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brookfield, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Brookfield beats SLR Investment on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SLR Investment

SLR Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in secured debt (first lien unitranche and second lien), subordinated (unsecured) debt, minority equity, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, general refinancing, growth capital and strategic income-oriented control equity investments in leveraged middle market companies. The fund invests in aerospace and defense; air freight & logistics; asset management; automotive; banking; beverage, food and tobacco; building products; buildings and real estate; broadcasting and entertainment; cargo transport; commercial services and supplies; communications equipment; chemicals, plastics and rubber; containers, packaging and glass; construction & engineering; diversified/conglomerate manufacturing; consumer Finance; distributors; diversified/conglomerate services; diversified financial services; diversified real estate activities; food products; Footwear; Education Services; diversified telecommunications services; electronics; farming and agriculture; finance; grocery; health care equipment and supplies; health care facilities; education and childcare; home and office furnishing, durable consumer products; hotels, motels, inns and gaming; insurance; restaurants, leisure, amusement, and entertainment; leisure equipment tolls and services, media, multiline retail, multi sector holdings; paper and forest products; personal products; professional services, research and consulting services, software; specialty retail; textiles apparel and luxury goods, thrifts and mortgage finance, trading companies and distributors, utilities, and wireless telecommunication services; industrial conglomerates; internet software and services, IT services, machinery; mining, steel, iron, and non-precious metals; oil and gas; personal, food and miscellaneous services; printing and publishing; retail stores; telecommunications; textiles and leather; and utilities. It also invests in life sciences with focus on specialty pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech, health Care Providers and services; health Care technology, enabling technologies and tools. The fund primarily invests in United States. The fund’s investments generally range between $5 million and $100 million. The fund invests in companies with revenues between $50 million and $1 billion and EBITDA between $15 million and $100 million. It invests in the form of senior secured loans, mezzanine loans, and equity securities. It may also seek investments in thinly traded public companies and also make secondary investments. The fund makes non-control equity investments. It primarily exits within three years of the initial capital commitment.

About Brookfield

Brookfield Corporation is an alternative asset manager and REIT/Real Estate Investment Manager firm focuses on real estate, renewable power, infrastructure and venture capital and private equity assets. It manages a range of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It typically makes investments in sizeable, premier assets across geographies and asset classes. It invests both its own capital as well as capital from other investors. Within private equity and venture capital, it focuses on acquisition, early ventures, control buyouts and financially distressed, buyouts and corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. It invests in both public debt and equity markets. It invests in private equity sectors with focus on Business Services include infrastructure, healthcare, road fuel distribution and marketing, construction and real estate; Industrials include manufacturers of automotive batteries, graphite electrodes, returnable plastic packaging, and sanitation management and development; and Residential/ infrastructure services. It targets companies which likely possess underlying real assets, primarily in sectors such as industrial products, building materials, metals, mining, homebuilding, oil and gas, paper and packaging, manufacturing and forest product sectors. It invests globally with focus on North America including Brazil, the United States, Canada; Europe; and Australia; and Asia-Pacific. The firm considers equity investments in the range of $2 million to $500 million. It has a four-year investment period and a 10-year term with two one-year extensions. The firm prefers to take minority stake and majority stake. Brookfield Corporation was founded in 1997 and based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices across Northern America; South America; Europe; Middle East and Asia.