Westwood Holdings Group (NYSE:WHG) vs. PennantPark Investment (NASDAQ:PNNT) Financial Survey

PennantPark Investment (NASDAQ:PNNT) and Westwood Holdings Group (NYSE:WHG) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for PennantPark Investment and Westwood Holdings Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PennantPark Investment	1	3	1	0	2.00
Westwood Holdings Group	0	0	1	0	3.00

PennantPark Investment presently has a consensus price target of $5.10, suggesting a potential upside of 76.17%. Given PennantPark Investment’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe PennantPark Investment is more favorable than Westwood Holdings Group.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

26.6% of PennantPark Investment shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.6% of Westwood Holdings Group shares are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of PennantPark Investment shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.4% of Westwood Holdings Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares PennantPark Investment and Westwood Holdings Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PennantPark Investment	11.33%	11.59%	4.23%
Westwood Holdings Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares PennantPark Investment and Westwood Holdings Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PennantPark Investment	$21.50 million	8.79	$48.85 million	$0.16	18.09
Westwood Holdings Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.88	21.50

PennantPark Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Westwood Holdings Group. PennantPark Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Westwood Holdings Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

PennantPark Investment beats Westwood Holdings Group on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PennantPark Investment

PennantPark Investment Corporation, a business development company is a private equity fund specializes in direct and mezzanine investments in middle market companies. It invests in the form of mezzanine debt, senior secured loans, and equity investments. The fund typically invests in buildings and real estate, hotels, gaming and leisure, technology, telecommunications, transportation, information technology services, electronics, healthcare & pharmaceuticals, education and childcare, financial services, printing and publishing, consumer products, business services, energy & Related Services and utilities, distribution, oil and gas, media, environmental services, aerospace and defense, building materials, capital equipment, chemicals, plastics, & rubber, food & beverage, wholesale, manufacturing and basic industries and retail. It invests in equity securities and debt transactions through preferred stock, common stock, warrants, options, senior secured debt, subordinated debt, subordinated loans, first lien debt, mezzanine loans, and distressed debt securities and private equity co-investments. It seeks to invest in companies based in the United States. The fund seeks to invest between $10 million and $100 million cross the capital structure (senior secured loans, subordinated debt, and other investments) in its portfolio companies with EBITDA between $10 to $50 million. Its mezzanine loans, senior secured loans, and other investments in its portfolio companies are between $15 million and $50 million. The fund may also make non-control equity and debt investments.

About Westwood Holdings Group

Westwood Holdings Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages investment assets and provides services for its clients. The company operates in two segments, Advisory and Trust. The Advisory segment provides investment advisory services to corporate retirement plans, public retirement plans, endowments, foundations, individuals, and the Westwood Funds; and investment sub-advisory services to mutual funds, pooled investment vehicles, and its Trust segment. The Trust segment offers trust and custodial services; and participates in common trust funds that it sponsors to institutions and high net worth individuals. Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Dallas, Texas.