MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) vs. Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) Financial Contrast

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) and Eagle Point Credit (NYSE:ECC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares MSCI and Eagle Point Credit”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSCI	$2.86 billion	15.46	$1.11 billion	$15.10	37.80
Eagle Point Credit	$179.77 million	3.11	$85.49 million	$0.11	65.95

MSCI has higher revenue and earnings than Eagle Point Credit. MSCI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Eagle Point Credit, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

MSCI has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eagle Point Credit has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

MSCI pays an annual dividend of $7.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Eagle Point Credit pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 23.2%. MSCI pays out 47.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eagle Point Credit pays out 1,527.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. MSCI has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.0% of MSCI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.5% of Eagle Point Credit shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of MSCI shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Eagle Point Credit shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for MSCI and Eagle Point Credit, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSCI	0	3	10	0	2.77
Eagle Point Credit	0	1	1	1	3.00

MSCI currently has a consensus target price of $654.73, indicating a potential upside of 14.70%. Eagle Point Credit has a consensus target price of $8.67, indicating a potential upside of 19.46%. Given Eagle Point Credit’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eagle Point Credit is more favorable than MSCI.

Profitability

This table compares MSCI and Eagle Point Credit’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSCI	39.46%	-143.13%	23.46%
Eagle Point Credit	6.73%	13.49%	8.59%

Summary

MSCI beats Eagle Point Credit on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, an integrated view of risk and return service, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, counterparty, and climate risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG impacts the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other Private Assets segment includes real estate and infrastructure data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. The Private Capital Solutions segment offers tools to help private asset investors across mission-critical workflows, such as sourcing terms and conditions, evaluating operating performance, managing risk and other activities supporting private capital investing. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Eagle Point Credit

Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. is a closed ended fund launched and managed by Eagle Point Credit Management LLC. It invests in fixed income markets of the United States. The fund invests equity and junior debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations consisting primarily of below investment grade U.S. senior secured loans. Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. was formed on March 24, 2014 and is domiciled in the United States.