Contrasting Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) & Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL)

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Blackstone Secured Lending Fund and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	$1.42 billion	3.89	$563.46 million	$1.91	12.42
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$207.86 million	2.93	$65.61 million	$1.20	10.29

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has higher revenue and earnings than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Blackstone Secured Lending Fund and Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	1	4	4	0	2.33
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	2	2	2	0	2.00

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund currently has a consensus price target of $24.88, suggesting a potential upside of 4.88%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a consensus price target of $15.15, suggesting a potential upside of 22.67%. Given Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending is more favorable than Blackstone Secured Lending Fund.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

36.5% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	31.63%	11.73%	5.12%
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	29.56%	9.80%	4.18%

Dividends

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.0%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.7%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays out 161.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays out 120.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund beats Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is business development company and a Delaware statutory trust formed on March 26, 2018, and structured as an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment Fund. On October 26, 2018, the fund elected to be regulated as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the 1940 Act). In addition, the Fund elected to be treated for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as a regulated investment company (RIC), as defined under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code). The fund also intends to continue to comply with the requirements prescribed by the Code in order to maintain tax treatment as a RIC. The fund's investment objectives are to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, long-term capital appreciation. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective primarily through originated loans, equity and other securities, including syndicated loans, of private U.S. companies, specifically small and middle market companies, typically in the form of first lien senior secured and unitranche loans (including first out/last out loans), and to a lesser extent, second lien, third lien, unsecured and subordinated loans and other debt and equity securities.

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.