Guild (NYSE:GHLD) and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) Head to Head Contrast

Guild (NYSE:GHLD) and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and valuation.

Dividends

Guild pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.1%. Guild pays out -153.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

17.5% of Guild shares are owned by institutional investors. 78.0% of Guild shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guild	$663.86 million	1.29	-$39.01 million	($0.65)	-21.54
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$161.76 million	6.07	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Guild.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guild	1	1	2	0	2.25
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50

Guild currently has a consensus target price of $15.25, suggesting a potential upside of 8.93%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a consensus target price of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 3.35%. Given Guild’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Guild is more favorable than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending.

Profitability

This table compares Guild and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guild	-5.95%	3.57%	1.27%
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	46.95%	11.91%	4.89%

Summary

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending beats Guild on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Guild

Guild Holdings Company originates, sells, and services residential mortgage loans in the United States. It operates in two segments, Origination and Servicing. The company offers residential mortgages through retail and correspondent channels. Guild Holdings Company was incorporated in 1960 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is a specialty finance company focused primarily on investing in senior secured loans to private equity-owned U.S. middle market companies. It has elected to be regulated as a business development company. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is based in NEW YORK.