Financial Review: Great Elm Capital Group (GECC) vs. Its Competitors

Great Elm Capital Group (NASDAQ:GECC) is one of 1,743 public companies in the “Capital Markets” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Great Elm Capital Group to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Great Elm Capital Group has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Great Elm Capital Group’s rivals have a beta of 0.79, indicating that their average share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Great Elm Capital Group pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 20.0%. Great Elm Capital Group pays out -68.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.2% and pay out 29.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Great Elm Capital Group has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Great Elm Capital Group is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Great Elm Capital Group and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Great Elm Capital Group	$49.99 million	-$31.79 million	-3.42
Great Elm Capital Group Competitors	$5.28 billion	$398.52 million	17.85

Great Elm Capital Group’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Great Elm Capital Group. Great Elm Capital Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Great Elm Capital Group and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Great Elm Capital Group	2	1	0	0	1.33
Great Elm Capital Group Competitors	5560	20138	22478	642	2.37

As a group, “Capital Markets” companies have a potential upside of 26.42%. Given Great Elm Capital Group’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Great Elm Capital Group has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

38.8% of Great Elm Capital Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.5% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Great Elm Capital Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Great Elm Capital Group and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Great Elm Capital Group	-49.20%	15.01%	5.61%
Great Elm Capital Group Competitors	318.24%	11.44%	3.69%

Summary

Great Elm Capital Group rivals beat Great Elm Capital Group on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Great Elm Capital Group Company Profile

Great Elm Capital Corp. is a business development company which specializes in loan and mezzanine, middle market investments. It invests in the debt instruments of middle market companies. The fund prefers to invest in media, commercial services and supplies, healthcare, telecommunication services, communications equipment. It typically makes equity investments between $3 million and $10 million in companies with revenues between $3 million and $75 million.