Head-To-Head Analysis: Barings Participation Investors (NYSE:MPV) versus Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ:HLNE)

Barings Participation Investors (NYSE:MPV) and Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ:HLNE) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Barings Participation Investors and Hamilton Lane, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barings Participation Investors	0	0	0	0	0.00
Hamilton Lane	0	4	6	0	2.60

Hamilton Lane has a consensus target price of $155.38, indicating a potential upside of 68.90%. Given Hamilton Lane’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Hamilton Lane is more favorable than Barings Participation Investors.

Profitability

This table compares Barings Participation Investors and Hamilton Lane’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barings Participation Investors	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hamilton Lane	30.59%	27.82%	16.02%

Dividends

Barings Participation Investors pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Hamilton Lane pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Hamilton Lane pays out 38.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hamilton Lane has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Barings Participation Investors and Hamilton Lane”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barings Participation Investors	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hamilton Lane	$712.96 million	7.20	$217.42 million	$5.57	16.52

Hamilton Lane has higher revenue and earnings than Barings Participation Investors.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.4% of Hamilton Lane shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Barings Participation Investors shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.2% of Hamilton Lane shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Barings Participation Investors has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hamilton Lane has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Hamilton Lane beats Barings Participation Investors on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barings Participation Investors

Barings Participation Investors is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Barings LLC. The fund invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. It primarily invests in below-investment grade, long-term corporate debt obligations which are directly purchased from its issuers. The fund also seeks to invest in warrants, conversion rights, or other equity related instruments. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against Standard and Poor's Industrials Composite, Russell 2000 Index, Lehman Brothers U.S. High Yield Index, and Lehman Brothers Intermediate U.S. Credit Index. The fund was formerly known as Babson Capital Participation Investors. Barings Participation Investors was formed on April 7, 1988 and is domiciled in the United States.

About Hamilton Lane

Hamilton Lane Incorporated is a private equity firm specializing in early venture, emerging growth, turnaround, middle market, mature, mid-venture, bridge, buyout, distressed/vulture, loan, mezzanine in growth capital companies. It prefers to invest in energy, industrials, consumer discretionary, health care, real estate, information technology, utilities, and consumer services. The firm prefers to invest in Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, United States of America, and Canada. The firm prefers to invest between $1 million and $100 million. It prefers to take majority stake. Hamilton Lane Incorporated was founded in 1991 and is based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania with additional offices across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.