Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) & Onity Group (NYSE:ONIT) Critical Contrast

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) and Onity Group (NYSE:ONIT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Onity Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50
Onity Group	0	0	1	1	3.50

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending currently has a consensus target price of $18.33, suggesting a potential upside of 6.78%. Onity Group has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.42%. Given Onity Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Onity Group is more favorable than Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending.

Profitability

This table compares Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Onity Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	50.23%	12.70%	5.92%
Onity Group	0.16%	15.54%	0.52%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending and Onity Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending	$99.54 million	9.49	$75.94 million	N/A	N/A
Onity Group	$1.10 billion	0.22	-$63.70 million	$0.53	58.23

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Onity Group.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.2% of Onity Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Onity Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Onity Group beats Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is a specialty finance company focused primarily on investing in senior secured loans to private equity-owned U.S. middle market companies. It has elected to be regulated as a business development company. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. is based in NEW YORK.

About Onity Group

Onity Group Inc., a financial services company, originates and services mortgage loans in the United States, the United States Virgin Islands, India, and the Philippines. It operates through, Servicing and Originations segments. The company provides commercial forward mortgage loan servicing, reverse mortgage servicing, special servicing, and asset management services for to owners of mortgage loans and foreclosed real estate, as well as residential mortgage loan servicing, such as forward and reverse conventional, government-insured, and non-agency loans, including the reverse mortgage loans classified as loans. It also originates and purchases conventional and government-insured residential forward and reverse mortgage loans through its correspondent lending arrangements, broker relationships, and retail channels. It serves primarily under the PHH Mortgage and Liberty Reverse Mortgage brands. The company was formerly known as Ocwen Financial Corporation and changed its name to Onity Group Inc. in June 2024. Onity Group Inc. was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.