Financial Contrast: CION Investment (NYSE:CION) versus Cementos Argos (OTCMKTS:CMTOY)

Cementos Argos (OTCMKTS:CMTOY) and CION Investment (NYSE:CION) are both construction companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Cementos Argos and CION Investment, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cementos Argos	0	0	0	0	0.00
CION Investment	0	2	0	0	2.00

CION Investment has a consensus price target of $12.25, suggesting a potential upside of 6.85%. Given CION Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CION Investment is more favorable than Cementos Argos.

Profitability

This table compares Cementos Argos and CION Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cementos Argos	N/A	N/A	N/A
CION Investment	31.21%	11.49%	5.04%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cementos Argos and CION Investment”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cementos Argos	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
CION Investment	$90.95 million	6.72	$95.31 million	$1.47	7.80

CION Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Cementos Argos.

Dividends

Cementos Argos pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. CION Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.6%. CION Investment pays out 98.0% 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 & Institutional Ownership

32.0% of CION Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of CION Investment shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

CION Investment beats Cementos Argos on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cementos Argos

Cementos Argos S.A. offers cement, concrete, aggregates, ready-mix concrete, and hydrated lime products in Colombia, the Caribbean, Central America, and the United States. The company also engages in the reinsurance; property management; transport; and seaports operation businesses. In addition, it exports its products. The company was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Barranquilla, Colombia. Cementos Argos S.A. is a subsidiary of Grupo Argos S.A.

About CION Investment

CION Investment Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in investments in senior secured loans, including unitranche loans, First Lien, second lien loans, long-term subordinated loans, and mezzanine loans; equity interests such as warrants or options; and corporate bonds; and other debt securities in middle-market companies. The firm invests in growth capital, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, market/product expansion, refinancing and recapitalization. The fund also invests up to 30 percent of their assets opportunistically in other types of investments, including the securities of larger public companies and foreign securities. It also makes investments in the secondary loan market. The fund does not invest in start-up companies, turnaround situations, or companies with speculative business plans. The fund prefers to invest in high tech industries, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, business services, media, chemicals, plastic, rubber, telecommunication, consumer services, advertising, printing and publishing, consumer goods, durables, diversified financials, and other industries. It also invests in homebuilding, restaurants, beverage and tobacco bars, broadcasting, distributors, Non-durable good distribution, food beverage and tobacco, energy, oil gas and consumables fuels, insurance, aerospace and defense, industrial machinery, paper and forest product machinery, information technology, metals and mining, and real estate. It primarily seeks to invest in the United States. The fund seeks to invest between $5 million and $50 million in companies with an EBITDA between $25 million and $75 million with average targeted hold of $25 million. It also purchases minority interests in the form of common or preferred equity in the target companies, typically in conjunction with its debt investments or through a co-investment with a financial sponsor. The fund seeks to exit its investments through an initial public offering of common stock, a merger, a sale, or other recapitalization.