BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (NYSE:BIT) vs. Donnelley Financial Solutions (NYSE:DFIN) Financial Analysis

BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (NYSE:BIT) and Donnelley Financial Solutions (NYSE:DFIN) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust and Donnelley Financial Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust	$55.85 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Donnelley Financial Solutions	$767.00 million	1.52	$32.40 million	$1.45	32.70

Donnelley Financial Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust and Donnelley Financial Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust	0	0	0	0	0.00
Donnelley Financial Solutions	0	2	2	1	2.80

Donnelley Financial Solutions has a consensus target price of $61.00, suggesting a potential upside of 28.64%. Given Donnelley Financial Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Donnelley Financial Solutions is more favorable than BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.8% of Donnelley Financial Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 5.2% of Donnelley Financial Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust and Donnelley Financial Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
Donnelley Financial Solutions	4.53%	25.82%	12.29%

Summary

Donnelley Financial Solutions beats BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust on 10 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust

BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc. It is co-managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC and BlackRock (Singapore) Limited. The fund invests in fixed income markets. It invests primarily in loan and debt instruments and other investments with similar economic characteristic. BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust was formed on February 25, 2013 and is domiciled in the United States.

About Donnelley Financial Solutions

Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. provides innovative software and technology-enabled financial regulatory and compliance solutions in the United States, Asia, Europe, Canada, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Capital Markets Software Solutions (CM-SS); Capital Markets Compliance and Communications Management (CM-CCM); Investment Companies Software Solutions (IC-SS); and Investment Companies Compliance and Communications Management (IC-CCM). The CM-SS segment provides Venue and ActiveDisclosure solutions to public and private companies to manage public and private transactional and compliance processes; collaborate; and tag, validate, and file SEC documents. The CM-CCM segment offers tech-enabled services and print and distribution solutions to public and private companies for deal solutions and SEC compliance requirements. The IC-SS segment provides clients with the Arc Suite platform that contains a comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions, including ArcDigital, ArcReporting, ArcPro, and ArcRegulatory, as well as services that enable storage and management of compliance and regulatory information in a self-service and central repository for accessing, assembling, editing, translating, rendering, and submitting documents to regulators and investors. The IC-CCM segment offers tech-enabled solutions for creating, filing and distributing regulatory communications, and solutions for investor communications, as well as XBRL and iXBRL-formatted filings pursuant for Investment Company Act through the SEC’s EDGAR system. This segment also provides turnkey proxy services, including discovery, planning and implementation, print and mail management, solicitation, tabulation services, stockholder meeting review, and expert support. Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.