Comparing Patria Investments (NYSE:PAX) and MSC Income Fund (NYSE:MSIF)

MSC Income Fund (NYSE:MSIF) and Patria Investments (NYSE:PAX) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares MSC Income Fund and Patria Investments”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSC Income Fund	$110.26 million	5.02	$100.90 million	$2.14	5.48
Patria Investments	$428.00 million	1.48	$73.40 million	$0.44	21.64

MSC Income Fund has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Patria Investments. MSC Income Fund is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Patria Investments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.3% of Patria Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of MSC Income Fund shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 58.1% of Patria Investments 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for MSC Income Fund and Patria Investments, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSC Income Fund	0	3	3	1	2.71
Patria Investments	3	1	1	0	1.60

MSC Income Fund presently has a consensus price target of $14.10, suggesting a potential upside of 20.19%. Patria Investments has a consensus price target of $12.75, suggesting a potential upside of 33.93%. Given Patria Investments’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Patria Investments is more favorable than MSC Income Fund.

Profitability

This table compares MSC Income Fund and Patria Investments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSC Income Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A
Patria Investments	19.91%	38.68%	15.84%

Summary

Patria Investments beats MSC Income Fund on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Patria Investments

Patria Investments Limited operates as a private market investment firm focused on investing in Latin America. The company offers asset management services to investors focusing on private equity funds, infrastructure development funds, co-investments funds, constructivist equity funds, and real estate and credit funds. Patria Investments Limited was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Grand Cayman, the Cayman Islands.