Analyzing Hays (OTCMKTS:HAYPY) & Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD)

Hays (OTCMKTS:HAYPY) and Carlyle Secured Lending (NASDAQ:CGBD) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Hays has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Carlyle Secured Lending has a beta of 1.57, suggesting that its share price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

24.5% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Carlyle Secured Lending shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Hays pays an annual dividend of $0.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Carlyle Secured Lending pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. Carlyle Secured Lending pays out 98.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Hays and Carlyle Secured Lending, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hays	0	0	0	1	4.00
Carlyle Secured Lending	2	1	0	0	1.33

Carlyle Secured Lending has a consensus target price of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.92%. Given Carlyle Secured Lending’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Carlyle Secured Lending is more favorable than Hays.

Profitability

This table compares Hays and Carlyle Secured Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hays	N/A	N/A	N/A
Carlyle Secured Lending	40.69%	12.60%	5.77%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Hays and Carlyle Secured Lending”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hays	$8.75 billion	0.18	-$6.17 million	N/A	N/A
Carlyle Secured Lending	$99.28 million	8.56	$92.28 million	$1.62	10.30

Carlyle Secured Lending has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Hays.

Summary

Carlyle Secured Lending beats Hays on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hays

Hays plc engages in the provision of recruitment services in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. The company provides qualified, professional, and skilled recruitment in permanent, temporary, and contractor formats to public and private sectors. It offers its recruitment services in the specialisms, such as technology, accountancy and finance, engineering, construction and property, office support, life sciences, sales and marketing, and others. Hays plc was founded in 1968 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

About Carlyle Secured Lending

Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. is business development company specializing in first lien debt, senior secured loans, second lien senior secured loan unsecured debt, mezzanine debt and investments in equities. It specializes in directly investing. It specializes in middle market. It targets healthcare and pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, high tech industries, business services, software, beverage food and tobacco, hotel gamming and leisure, banking finance insurance and in real estate sector. The fund seeks to invest across United States of America, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, and United Kingdom. It invests in companies with EBITDA between $25 million and $100 million.