Critical Contrast: WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) versus BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund (NYSE:MQY)

WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) and BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund (NYSE:MQY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

WhiteHorse Finance has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WhiteHorse Finance	$103.26 million	2.39	$20.41 million	$0.45	23.60
BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

WhiteHorse Finance has higher revenue and earnings than BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for WhiteHorse Finance and BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WhiteHorse Finance	1	2	0	0	1.67
BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund	0	0	0	0	0.00

WhiteHorse Finance presently has a consensus target price of $10.75, indicating a potential upside of 1.22%. Given WhiteHorse Finance’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe WhiteHorse Finance is more favorable than BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund.

Profitability

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WhiteHorse Finance	10.65%	12.86%	5.59%
BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

WhiteHorse Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.5%. BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. WhiteHorse Finance pays out 342.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

13.2% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.5% of BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund shares are owned 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

WhiteHorse Finance beats BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WhiteHorse Finance

WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. is business development company, non-diversified, closed end management company specializing in originating senior secured loans, lower middle market, growth capital industries. It invests in broadline retail, office services and supplies, building products, health care services, health care supplies, research and consulting services, application software, home furnishings, specialized consumer services, data processing and outsourced services, leisure facilities, cable, and satellite. It prefers to invest in United States. It typically invests between $5 million to $25 million in companies having enterprise value of between $50 million and $350 million.

About BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund

BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund, Inc. is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc. It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets. It invests in long-term municipal obligations the interest on which is exempt from federal income taxes. The fund also invests in short-term securities. BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund, Inc. was formed on July 21, 1992 and is domiciled in United States.