CION Investment (NYSE:CION) vs. Cohen & Steers (NYSE:CNS) Head-To-Head Survey

CION Investment (NYSE:CION) and Cohen & Steers (NYSE:CNS) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for CION Investment and Cohen & Steers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CION Investment	1	2	0	0	1.67
Cohen & Steers	0	1	2	0	2.67

CION Investment presently has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential downside of 1.29%. Cohen & Steers has a consensus target price of $88.00, suggesting a potential upside of 26.81%. Given Cohen & Steers’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cohen & Steers is more favorable than CION Investment.

Volatility and Risk

CION Investment has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cohen & Steers has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CION Investment and Cohen & Steers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CION Investment	1.17%	11.95%	4.52%
Cohen & Steers	28.82%	27.41%	19.58%

Dividends

CION Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.2%. Cohen & Steers pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. CION Investment pays out 2,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Cohen & Steers pays out 82.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CION Investment has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Cohen & Steers has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CION Investment and Cohen & Steers”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CION Investment	$240.82 million	1.35	-$20.63 million	$0.06	109.75
Cohen & Steers	$604.74 million	5.90	$153.22 million	$3.26	21.29

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

32.0% of CION Investment shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.5% of Cohen & Steers shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of CION Investment shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 45.4% of Cohen & Steers shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Cohen & Steers beats CION Investment on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CION Investment

CION Investment Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in investments in senior secured loans, including unitranche loans, First Lien, second lien loans, long-term subordinated loans, and mezzanine loans; equity interests such as warrants or options; and corporate bonds; and other debt securities in middle-market companies. The firm invests in growth capital, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, market/product expansion, refinancing and recapitalization. The fund also invests up to 30 percent of their assets opportunistically in other types of investments, including the securities of larger public companies and foreign securities. It also makes investments in the secondary loan market. The fund does not invest in start-up companies, turnaround situations, or companies with speculative business plans. The fund prefers to invest in high tech industries, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, business services, media, chemicals, plastic, rubber, telecommunication, consumer services, advertising, printing and publishing, consumer goods, durables, diversified financials, and other industries. It also invests in homebuilding, restaurants, beverage and tobacco bars, broadcasting, distributors, Non-durable good distribution, food beverage and tobacco, energy, oil gas and consumables fuels, insurance, aerospace and defense, industrial machinery, paper and forest product machinery, information technology, metals and mining, and real estate. It primarily seeks to invest in the United States. The fund seeks to invest between $5 million and $50 million in companies with an EBITDA between $25 million and $75 million with average targeted hold of $25 million. It also purchases minority interests in the form of common or preferred equity in the target companies, typically in conjunction with its debt investments or through a co-investment with a financial sponsor. The fund seeks to exit its investments through an initial public offering of common stock, a merger, a sale, or other recapitalization.

About Cohen & Steers

Cohen & Steers, Inc. is a holding company, which operates as an investment manager specializing in liquid real assets, which include real estate securities, listed infrastructure, commodities, natural resource equities, preferred securities, and other income solutions. It manages investment vehicles, such as institutional accounts, open-end funds and closed-end funds. The company was founded by Martin Cohen and Robert Hamilton Steers in 1986 and is headquartered in New York, NY.