Contrasting MidCap Financial Investment (NASDAQ:MFIC) and Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK)

MidCap Financial Investment (NASDAQ:MFIC) and Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

MidCap Financial Investment has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Argo Blockchain has a beta of 1.82, suggesting that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

28.5% of MidCap Financial Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.4% of Argo Blockchain shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of MidCap Financial Investment shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares MidCap Financial Investment and Argo Blockchain”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MidCap Financial Investment	$78.04 million	14.11	$63.17 million	$0.66	18.09
Argo Blockchain	$24.12 million	0.05	$5.08 million	($117.39)	-0.03

MidCap Financial Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Argo Blockchain. Argo Blockchain is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MidCap Financial Investment, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares MidCap Financial Investment and Argo Blockchain’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MidCap Financial Investment	19.69%	10.43%	4.22%
Argo Blockchain	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for MidCap Financial Investment and Argo Blockchain, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MidCap Financial Investment	0	7	2	0	2.22
Argo Blockchain	1	1	0	0	1.50

MidCap Financial Investment currently has a consensus target price of $11.54, indicating a potential downside of 3.39%. Given MidCap Financial Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe MidCap Financial Investment is more favorable than Argo Blockchain.

Summary

MidCap Financial Investment beats Argo Blockchain on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Argo Blockchain

Argo Blockchain plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies mining business worldwide. It engages in mining purpose-built computers for complex cryptographic algorithms. The company was formerly known as GoSun Blockchain Limited and changed its name to Argo Blockchain plc in December 2017. Argo Blockchain plc was incorporated in 2017 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.