Reviewing Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) and Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL)

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

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Amalgamated Financial”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$207.86 million	3.16	$65.61 million	$1.20	11.10
Amalgamated Financial	$453.17 million	2.70	$104.45 million	$3.44	11.89

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Amalgamated Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	4	2	0	2.33
Amalgamated Financial	1	1	1	0	2.00

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending presently has a consensus target price of $15.50, indicating a potential upside of 16.39%. Amalgamated Financial has a consensus target price of $44.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.58%. Given Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending is more favorable than Amalgamated Financial.

Volatility & Risk

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amalgamated Financial has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

75.9% of Amalgamated Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Amalgamated Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.8%. Amalgamated Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. 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. Amalgamated Financial pays out 19.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Amalgamated Financial has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	29.56%	9.80%	4.18%
Amalgamated Financial	22.33%	13.89%	1.23%

Summary

Amalgamated Financial beats Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending on 10 of the 17 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 Amalgamated Financial

Amalgamated Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Amalgamated Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, investment management, and trust and custody services for commercial and retail customers in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including non-interest bearing accounts, interest-bearing demand products, savings accounts, money market accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also provides various commercial loans comprising commercial and industrial, multifamily mortgage, and commercial real estate loans; residential mortgage loans; and retail loans, such as residential real estate, consumer solar, and consumer and other loans. In addition, the company offers online banking, bill payment, online cash management, and safe deposit box rental services; debit and ATM cards; and trust, custody, and investment management services comprising asset safekeeping, corporate actions, income collections, proxy, account transition, asset transfers, and conversion management services. Further, it provides investment products, such as funds spanning equity, fixed-income, real estate, and alternative investment products; and brokerage, asset management, and insurance products. Amalgamated Financial Corp. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in New York, New York.