CION Investment (NYSE:CION) & Oxford Square Capital (NASDAQ:OXSQ) Head-To-Head Review

Oxford Square Capital (NASDAQ:OXSQ) and CION Investment (NYSE:CION) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Volatility & Risk

Oxford Square Capital has a beta of 0.5, suggesting that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CION Investment has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Oxford Square Capital and CION Investment”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oxford Square Capital	$42.68 million	3.73	$5.88 million	($0.04)	-48.75
CION Investment	$252.43 million	1.99	$33.90 million	$0.51	18.94

CION Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Oxford Square Capital. Oxford Square Capital 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

6.4% of Oxford Square Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.0% of CION Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.6% of Oxford Square Capital shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of CION Investment shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Oxford Square Capital and CION Investment, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oxford Square Capital	1	0	0	0	1.00
CION Investment	1	2	0	0	1.67

CION Investment has a consensus price target of $8.50, indicating a potential downside of 12.01%. Given CION Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe CION Investment is more favorable than Oxford Square Capital.

Dividends

Oxford Square Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 21.5%. CION Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.9%. Oxford Square Capital pays out -1,050.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CION Investment pays out 282.4% 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 raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Oxford Square Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Oxford Square Capital and CION Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oxford Square Capital	-6.39%	14.80%	7.88%
CION Investment	10.59%	12.02%	4.91%

Summary

CION Investment beats Oxford Square Capital on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oxford Square Capital

Oxford Square Capital Corp. is a business development company, operates as a closed-end, non-diversified management investment company. It is a private equity and mezzanine firm. The firm invests in both public and private companies. It invests in secured and unsecured senior debt, subordinated debt, junior subordinated debt, preferred stock, common stock and syndicated bank loans. The firm primarily invests in debt and/or equity securities of technology-related companies that operate in the computer software, Internet, information technology infrastructure and services, media, telecommunications and telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, hardware, technology-enabled services, semiconductor capital equipment, medical device technology, diversified technology, and networking systems sectors. It concentrates its investments in companies having annual revenues of less than $200 million and a market capitalization or enterprise value of less than $300 million. The firm invests between $5 million and $30 million per transaction. It seeks to exit its investments within 7 years. It serves as the investment adviser to TICC. Oxford Square Capital Corp., formerly known as TICC Capital Corp., was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

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.