Contrasting Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund (NYSE:NCA) and MidCap Financial Investment (NASDAQ:MFIC)

Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund (NYSE:NCA) and MidCap Financial Investment (NASDAQ:MFIC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund has a beta of 0.33, meaning that its stock price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MidCap Financial Investment has a beta of 1.5, meaning that its stock price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund and MidCap Financial Investment”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
MidCap Financial Investment	$125.13 million	9.85	$118.76 million	$1.71	7.68

MidCap Financial Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund and MidCap Financial Investment, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	0	0	0	0	N/A
MidCap Financial Investment	0	3	4	0	2.57

MidCap Financial Investment has a consensus target price of $14.86, indicating a potential upside of 13.07%. Given MidCap Financial Investment’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe MidCap Financial Investment is more favorable than Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund.

Dividends

Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. MidCap Financial Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.6%. MidCap Financial Investment pays out 88.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

21.5% of Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.5% of MidCap Financial Investment shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of MidCap Financial Investment shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund and MidCap Financial Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A
MidCap Financial Investment	40.08%	11.54%	4.65%

Summary

MidCap Financial Investment beats Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About MidCap Financial Investment

MidCap Financial Investment Corporation (Former name Apollo Investment Corporation) is business development company and a closed-end, externally managed, non-diversified management investment company. It is elected to be treated as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the 1940 Act) specializing in private equity investments in leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, growth capital, refinancing and private middle market companies. It provides direct equity capital, mezzanine, first lien secured loans, stretch senior loans, unitranche loans, second lien secured loans and senior secured loans, unsecured debt, and subordinated debt and loans. It also seeks to invest in PIPES transactions. The fund may also invest in securities of public companies that are thinly traded and may acquire investments in the secondary market and structured products. It prefers to invest in preferred equity, common equity / interests and warrants and makes equity co-investments. It may invest in cash equivalents, U.S. government securities, high-quality debt investments that mature in one year or less, high-yield bonds, distressed debt, non-U.S. investments, or securities of public companies that are not thinly traded. It also focuses on other investments such as collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and credit-linked notes (CLNs). The fund typically invests in construction and building materials, business services, plastics & rubber, advertising, capital equipment, education, cable television, chemicals, consumer products/goods durable and non-durable and customer services, direct marketing, energy oil & gas, electricity and utilities. The fund also invest in aerospace & defense, wholesale, telecommunications, financial services, hotel, gaming, leisure, restaurants; environmental industries, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, high tech industries, beverages, food and tobacco, manufacturing, media diversified & production, printing and publishing, retail, automation, aviation and consumer transport, transportation, cargo and distribution. It primarily invests in United States. It primarily invests between $20 million and $250 million in its portfolio companies and EBITDA with less than $75 million. The fund seeks to make investments with stated maturities of five to 10 years.