Head-To-Head Review: SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) & Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC)

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) and Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for SEI Investments and Capital Southwest, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SEI Investments	0	2	7	0	2.78
Capital Southwest	0	3	6	0	2.67

SEI Investments currently has a consensus target price of $109.67, indicating a potential upside of 34.74%. Capital Southwest has a consensus target price of $23.42, indicating a potential upside of 2.89%. Given SEI Investments’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe SEI Investments is more favorable than Capital Southwest.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares SEI Investments and Capital Southwest”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SEI Investments	$2.30 billion	4.34	$715.30 million	$5.63	14.46
Capital Southwest	$204.44 million	6.70	$70.55 million	$1.81	12.57

SEI Investments has higher revenue and earnings than Capital Southwest. Capital Southwest is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SEI Investments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

70.6% of SEI Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.4% of Capital Southwest shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.6% of SEI Investments shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Capital Southwest 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.

Risk and Volatility

SEI Investments has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Capital Southwest has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

SEI Investments pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Capital Southwest pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.2%. SEI Investments pays out 18.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Capital Southwest pays out 128.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SEI Investments has raised its dividend for 34 consecutive years and Capital Southwest has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares SEI Investments and Capital Southwest’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SEI Investments	31.14%	30.26%	25.33%
Capital Southwest	45.46%	13.76%	6.51%

Summary

SEI Investments beats Capital Southwest on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SEI Investments

SEI Investments Company is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides wealth management, retirement and investment solutions, asset management, asset administration, investment processing outsourcing solutions, financial services, and investment advisory services to its clients. It provides its services to private banks, independent financial advisers, institutional investors, investment managers, investment advisors, wealth management organizations, corporations, retirement scheme sponsors, not-for-profit organizations, hedge fund managers, registered investment advisers, independent broker-dealers, financial planners, life insurance agents, defined-benefit schemes, defined-contribution schemes, endowments, foundations, and board-designated fund, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm manages separate client-focused portfolios. It also launches and manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in public equity and fixed income markets. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on top-down and bottom-up analysis to make its investments, through its subsidiaries. SEI Investments Company was founded in 1968 and is based in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

About Capital Southwest

Capital Southwest Corporation is a business development company specializing in credit and private equity and venture capital investments in middle market companies, mezzanine, later stage, mature, late venture, emerging growth, buyouts, industry consolidation, recapitalizations and growth capital investments. It does not invest in startups, publicly traded companies, real estate developments, project finance opportunities, oil and gas exploration businesses, troubled companies, turnarounds, and companies in which significant senior management is departing. In lower middle market, the firm typically invests in growth financing, bolt-on acquisitions, new platform acquisitions, refinancing, dividend recapitalizations, sponsor-led buyouts, and management buyouts situations. The investment structures are Unitranche debt, subordinated debt, senior debt, first and second lien debt, and preferred and common equity. The firm makes equity co-investments alongside debt investments, up to 20% of total check and only makes non-control investments. The firm is Industry agnostic, but it prefers to invest in Industrial manufacturing and services, value-added distribution, healthcare products and services, business services, specialty chemicals, food and beverage, tech-enabled services and SaaS models. The firm seeks to invest in energy services and products, industrial technologies, and specialty chemicals and products. Within energy services and products, the firm seeks to invest in each segment of the industry, including upstream, midstream and downstream, excluding exploration and production with a focus on differentiated products and services, equipment and tool rental, consumable products, and drilling and completion chemicals. Within industrial technologies, it seeks to invest in automation and process controls, handling and packaging equipment, industrial filtration and fluid handling, measurement, monitoring and testing, professional tools, and sensors and instrumentation. Within and specialty chemicals and products, the firm seeks to invest in businesses that develop and manufacture highly differentiated chemicals and products including adhesives, coatings and sealants, catalysts and absorbents, cosmeceuticals, fine chemicals, flavors and fragrances, performance lubricants, polymers, plastics and composites, chemical dispensing and filtration equipment, professional and industrial trade consumables and tools, engineered solutions for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical installations, specified high performance materials for fire protection and oilfield applications. It may also invest in exceptional opportunities in building products. The firm seeks to invest in the United States and North America. The firm seeks to make investments ranging from $5 million and $25 million in securities. It leads $5 to $70 million financings, Its Target holds of $5 million and $45 million, and the firm is willing to backstop up to $55mm with an active network of co-investors. It seeks to invest in the firm with minimum EBITDA is $3 million and $25 million. In addition to making direct investments, the firm allocates capital to syndicated first and second lien term loans in the upper middle market. Criteria for Upper Middle Market Syndicated 1st Lien is EBITDA Size more than $30 million, Closing Leverage greater than 4 times, investment hold size between $5 million and $7 million up to $15mm with senior loan fund, investment yield greater than 6.5%. Criteria for Upper Middle Market Syndicated 2nd Lien is EBITDA Size more than $50 million, Closing Leverage greater than 6 times, investment hold size between $5 million and $7 million, investment yield greater than 9%. It prefers to take a majority and minority stake. The firm has the flexibility to hold investments for very long period in its portfolio companies. It may also invest through warrants. The firm prefers to take Board participation in its portfolio companies. Capital Southwest Corporation was founded on April 19, 1961 and is based in Dallas, Texas.