The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund (NYSE:GCV) and SuRo Capital (NASDAQ:SSSS) Critical Comparison

SuRo Capital (NASDAQ:SSSS) and The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund (NYSE:GCV) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.9% of SuRo Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.4% of The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of SuRo Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for SuRo Capital and The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SuRo Capital	0	0	2	0	3.00
The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund	0	0	0	0	N/A

SuRo Capital currently has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 56.25%. Given SuRo Capital’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe SuRo Capital is more favorable than The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund.

Dividends

SuRo Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.8%. SuRo Capital pays out 52.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SuRo Capital and The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SuRo Capital	$20.25 million	4.43	$5.07 million	$0.21	18.29
The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

SuRo Capital has higher revenue and earnings than The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund.

Profitability

This table compares SuRo Capital and The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SuRo Capital	76.81%	-6.58%	-4.80%
The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

SuRo Capital has a beta of 1.56, suggesting that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SuRo Capital beats The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SuRo Capital

SuRo Capital Corp. is a business development company. The firm seeks to invest in growth capital, late stage and venture capital-backed private companies. SuRo Capital Corp. was founded in 2010 and is based in San Francisco, California with additional office in New York, New York.

About The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund

The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund Inc. is a closed-ended balanced mutual fund launched by GAMCO Investors, Inc. The fund is managed by Gabelli Funds, LLC. It invests in public equity and fixed income markets. The fund seeks to invest in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors. It primarily invests in convertible securities and other debt and equity securities. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, Barclays Government/Credit Bond Index, and Lipper Convertible Securities Fund Average. It was formerly known as Gabelli Convertible Securities Fund Inc. The Gabelli Convertible and Income Securities Fund Inc. was formed on December 19, 1988 and is domiciled in the United States.