Critical Survey: SuRo Capital (NASDAQ:SSSS) vs. PCM Fund (NYSE:PCM)

PCM Fund (NYSE:PCM) and SuRo Capital (NASDAQ:SSSS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares PCM Fund and SuRo Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PCM Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A
SuRo Capital	-801.00%	-7.28%	-5.10%

Risk & Volatility

PCM Fund has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SuRo Capital has a beta of 1.66, meaning that its stock price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for PCM Fund and SuRo Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PCM Fund	0	0	0	0	0.00
SuRo Capital	0	0	2	0	3.00

SuRo Capital has a consensus target price of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.56%. Given SuRo Capital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SuRo Capital is more favorable than PCM Fund.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PCM Fund and SuRo Capital”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PCM Fund	$5.49 million	17.02	N/A	N/A	N/A
SuRo Capital	$6.60 million	20.72	$5.07 million	($1.89)	-3.10

SuRo Capital has higher revenue and earnings than PCM Fund.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

10.3% of PCM Fund shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.0% of SuRo Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of PCM Fund shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of SuRo Capital shares are held 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.

Summary

SuRo Capital beats PCM Fund on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PCM Fund

PCM Fund Inc. is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Allianz Global Investors Fund Management LLC. The fund is co-managed by Pacific Investment Management Company LLC. It seeks to invest in fixed income markets. The fund invests primarily in commercial mortgage-backed securities. It employs fundamental analysis with a focus on top down stock picking approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against Barclay’s CMBS Investment Grade Index. PCM Fund Inc was formed on September 2, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States.

About SuRo Capital

SuRo Capital Corp. is a business development company. The firm seeks to invest in growth capital, late stage and venture capital-backed private companies. SuRo Capital Corp. was founded in 2010 and is based in San Francisco, California with additional office in New York, New York.