SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) & Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NAZ) Head to Head Contrast

SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) and Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NAZ) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares SLR Investment and Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SLR Investment	40.89%	9.73%	3.90%
Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

SLR Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.2%. Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.74 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. SLR Investment pays out 92.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SLR Investment and Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SLR Investment	$106.47 million	9.13	$76.39 million	$1.77	10.07
Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund	$8.70 million	16.81	N/A	N/A	N/A

SLR Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

35.3% of SLR Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.3% of Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.6% of SLR Investment shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for SLR Investment and Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SLR Investment	2	2	0	0	1.50
Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund	0	0	0	0	0.00

SLR Investment currently has a consensus target price of $15.25, indicating a potential downside of 14.42%. Given SLR Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe SLR Investment is more favorable than Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund.

Volatility & Risk

SLR Investment has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SLR Investment beats Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SLR Investment

SLR Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in secured debt (first lien unitranche and second lien), subordinated (unsecured) debt, minority equity, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, general refinancing, growth capital and strategic income-oriented control equity investments in leveraged middle market companies. The fund invests in aerospace and defense; air freight & logistics; asset management; automotive; banking; beverage, food and tobacco; building products; buildings and real estate; broadcasting and entertainment; cargo transport; commercial services and supplies; communications equipment; chemicals, plastics and rubber; containers, packaging and glass; construction & engineering; diversified/conglomerate manufacturing; consumer Finance; distributors; diversified/conglomerate services; diversified financial services; diversified real estate activities; food products; Footwear; Education Services; diversified telecommunications services; electronics; farming and agriculture; finance; grocery; health care equipment and supplies; health care facilities; education and childcare; home and office furnishing, durable consumer products; hotels, motels, inns and gaming; insurance; restaurants, leisure, amusement, and entertainment; leisure equipment tolls and services, media, multiline retail, multi sector holdings; paper and forest products; personal products; professional services, research and consulting services, software; specialty retail; textiles apparel and luxury goods, thrifts and mortgage finance, trading companies and distributors, utilities, and wireless telecommunication services; industrial conglomerates; internet software and services, IT services, machinery; mining, steel, iron, and non-precious metals; oil and gas; personal, food and miscellaneous services; printing and publishing; retail stores; telecommunications; textiles and leather; and utilities. It also invests in life sciences with focus on specialty pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech, health Care Providers and services; health Care technology, enabling technologies and tools. The fund primarily invests in United States. The fund’s investments generally range between $5 million and $100 million. The fund invests in companies with revenues between $50 million and $1 billion and EBITDA between $15 million and $100 million. It invests in the form of senior secured loans, mezzanine loans, and equity securities. It may also seek investments in thinly traded public companies and also make secondary investments. The fund makes non-control equity investments. It primarily exits within three years of the initial capital commitment.

About Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Arizona. The fund invests in municipal securities and other related investments the income, exempt from regular federal and Arizona income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better and having an average maturity of 18.66 years. It employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Arizona Municipal Bond Index and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index. The fund was formerly known as Nuveen Arizona Premium Income Municipal Fund. Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund was formed on November 19, 1992 and is domiciled in the United States.