Reviewing Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) and CION Investment (NYSE:CION)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Moelis & Company and CION Investment, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Moelis & Company	0	6	2	0	2.25
CION Investment	1	2	0	0	1.67

Moelis & Company currently has a consensus target price of $71.00, suggesting a potential upside of 31.70%. CION Investment has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1.96%. Given Moelis & Company’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Moelis & Company is more favorable than CION Investment.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.5% of Moelis & Company shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.0% of CION Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.3% of Moelis & Company shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of CION Investment shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Moelis & Company pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. CION Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.8%. Moelis & Company pays out 90.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. 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. Moelis & Company has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and CION Investment has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Moelis & Company and CION Investment”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Moelis & Company	$1.52 billion	2.78	$233.04 million	$2.87	18.78
CION Investment	$240.82 million	1.30	-$20.63 million	$0.06	106.25

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

Profitability

This table compares Moelis & Company and CION Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Moelis & Company	14.50%	39.59%	17.04%
CION Investment	1.17%	11.95%	4.52%

Risk & Volatility

Moelis & Company has a beta of 1.91, indicating that its share price is 91% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CION Investment has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Moelis & Company beats CION Investment on 15 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Moelis & Company

Moelis & Co. operates as a holding company. It engages in the provision of financial advisory, capital raising and asset management services to a client base including corporations, governments, sovereign wealth funds and financial sponsors. The firm focuses on clients including large public multinational corporations, middle market private companies, financial sponsors, entrepreneurs and governments. The company was founded by Kenneth David Moelis, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeffrey Raich and Elizabeth Ann Crain in July 2007 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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.