Head-To-Head Contrast: DWS Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:KTF) vs. Compass Diversified (NYSE:CODI)

DWS Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:KTF) and Compass Diversified (NYSE:CODI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for DWS Municipal Income Trust and Compass Diversified, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DWS Municipal Income Trust	0	0	0	0	0.00
Compass Diversified	1	4	1	0	2.00

Compass Diversified has a consensus price target of $12.75, indicating a potential upside of 6.82%. Given Compass Diversified’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Compass Diversified is more favorable than DWS Municipal Income Trust.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

57.7% of DWS Municipal Income Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.7% of Compass Diversified shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of DWS Municipal Income Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Compass Diversified shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares DWS Municipal Income Trust and Compass Diversified’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DWS Municipal Income Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
Compass Diversified	-12.30%	-9.53%	0.06%

Volatility & Risk

DWS Municipal Income Trust has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Compass Diversified has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares DWS Municipal Income Trust and Compass Diversified”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DWS Municipal Income Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Compass Diversified	$1.87 billion	0.48	-$226.41 million	($3.91)	-3.05

DWS Municipal Income Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Compass Diversified.

Summary

Compass Diversified beats DWS Municipal Income Trust on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DWS Municipal Income Trust

Deutsche Municipal Income Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Deutsche Investment Management Americas, Inc. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund primarily invests in investment-grade tax-exempt municipal securities which are exempt from federal income tax. It seeks to invest in securities that are rated Baa or BBB or better by Moody’s or S&P. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Barclays Municipal Bond Index. It was formerly known as DWS Municipal Income Trust. Deutsche Municipal Income Trust was formed on October 20, 1988 and is domiciled in the United States.

About Compass Diversified

Compass Diversified is a private equity firm specializing in add on acquisitions, buyouts, industry consolidation, recapitalization, late stage and middle market investments. It seeks to invest in niche industrial or branded consumer companies, manufacturing, distribution, consumer products, business services sector, healthcare, safety & security, electronic components, food and foodservice. The firm prefers to invest in companies based in North America. It seeks to invest between $100 million and $800 million in companies with an EBITDA between $15 million to $80 million. It seeks to acquire controlling ownership interests in its portfolio companies and can make additional platform acquisitions. The firm prefer to have majority stake in companies. The firm invests through its balance sheet and typically holds investments between five to seven years. Compass Diversified was founded in 2006 and is based in Westport, Connecticut with an additional office in Costa Mesa, California.