Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) versus GCM Grosvenor (NASDAQ:GCMG) Head to Head Comparison

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) and GCM Grosvenor (NASDAQ:GCMG) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Dividends

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.7%. GCM Grosvenor pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays out 151.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. GCM Grosvenor pays out 92.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.9% of GCM Grosvenor shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 70.7% of GCM Grosvenor shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	1	2	2	0	2.20
GCM Grosvenor	0	1	4	0	2.80

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending presently has a consensus price target of $13.62, indicating a potential upside of 29.31%. GCM Grosvenor has a consensus price target of $14.62, indicating a potential upside of 18.23%. Given Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending is more favorable than GCM Grosvenor.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	24.44%	9.60%	4.10%
GCM Grosvenor	7.79%	142.74%	18.73%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and GCM Grosvenor”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$59.43 million	8.76	$65.61 million	$0.95	11.09
GCM Grosvenor	$579.05 million	4.33	$45.37 million	$0.52	23.79

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

Risk & Volatility

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GCM Grosvenor has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

GCM Grosvenor beats Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About GCM Grosvenor

GCM Grosvenor Inc. is global alternative asset management solutions provider. The firm primarily provides its services to pooled investment vehicles. It also provides its services to investment companies, high net worth individuals, pension and profit sharing plans and state or municipal government entities. The firm invests in equity and alternative investment markets of the United States and internationally. The firm invests in multi-strategy, credit-focused, equity-focused, macro-focused, commodity-focused, and other specialty portfolios. It focuses in hedge fund asset classes, private equity, real estate, and/or infrastructure, credit and absolute return strategies. It also focuses in primary fund investments, secondary fund investments, and co-investments with a focus on buyout, distressed debt, mezzanine, venture capital/growth equity investments. The firm seeks to do seed investments in small, emerging, and diverse private equity firms. The firm seeks to make regionally-focused investments in middle-market buyout. It prefers to invest in aerospace and defense, advanced electronics, information technology, biosciences, and advanced materials. It focuses on Ohio and the Midwest region. The firm employs fundamental and quantitative analysis. GCM Grosvenor Inc. was founded in 1971 and is based in Chicago, Illinois with additional offices in North America, Asia, Australia and Europe.