Critical Survey: WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) vs. Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund (NYSE:NCA)

WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund (NYSE:NCA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

13.2% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.5% of Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for WhiteHorse Finance and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WhiteHorse Finance	1	2	1	0	2.00
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	0	0	0	0	N/A

WhiteHorse Finance presently has a consensus price target of $12.81, indicating a potential upside of 4.08%. Given WhiteHorse Finance’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe WhiteHorse Finance is more favorable than Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund.

Dividends

WhiteHorse Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.5%. Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. WhiteHorse Finance pays out 187.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WhiteHorse Finance	18.40%	13.40%	5.74%
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility & Risk

WhiteHorse Finance has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WhiteHorse Finance	$103.26 million	N/A	$20.41 million	$0.82	15.01
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

WhiteHorse Finance has higher revenue and earnings than Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund.

Summary

WhiteHorse Finance beats Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WhiteHorse Finance

WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. is business development company, non-diversified, closed end management company specializing in originating senior secured loans, lower middle market, growth capital industries. It invests in broadline retail, office services and supplies, building products, health care services, health care supplies, research and consulting services, application software, home furnishings, specialized consumer services, data processing and outsourced services, leisure facilities, cable, and satellite. It prefers to invest in United States. It typically invests between $5 million to $25 million in companies having enterprise value of between $50 million and $350 million.

About Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund

Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of California. The fund invests primarily in municipal securities rated Baa/BBB or better. It invests in securities that provide income exempt from federal and California income tax. The fund employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the S&P California Municipal Bond Index and the S&P National Municipal Bond Index. Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund was formed on October 7, 1987 and is domiciled in the United States.