We will be contrasting the differences between Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) and THL Credit Inc. (NASDAQ:TCRD) as far as institutional ownership, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and valuation are concerned. The two businesses are rivals in the Asset Management industry.

Earnings and Valuation

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ares Management Corporation	958.46M	8.03	28.37M	0.16	143.73
THL Credit Inc.	66.94M	3.21	10.60M	-0.18	0.00

Table 1 demonstrates Ares Management Corporation and THL Credit Inc.’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Profitability

Table 2 provides us the return on assets, net margins and return on equity of both companies.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Management Corporation	2.96%	23.3%	0.8%
THL Credit Inc.	-15.84%	0%	0%

Dividends

Ares Management Corporation pays out $1.12 per share annually while its annual dividend yield is 4.73%. The dividend yield for THL Credit Inc. is 16.27% while its annual dividend payout is $1.08 per share.

Analyst Recommendations

Recommendations and Ratings for Ares Management Corporation and THL Credit Inc. can be find in next table.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Management Corporation	0	1	2	2.67
THL Credit Inc.	0	0	0	0.00

Ares Management Corporation has an average price target of $24.33, and a 2.14% upside potential.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

Roughly 60.7% of Ares Management Corporation shares are owned by institutional investors while 40.14% of THL Credit Inc. are owned by institutional investors. Insiders owned roughly 2.1% of Ares Management Corporation’s shares. On the other hand, insiders owned about 0.55% of THL Credit Inc.’s shares.

Performance

In this table we show the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

	Performance (W)	Performance (M)	Performance (Q)	Performance (HY)	Performance (Y)	Performance (YTD)
Ares Management Corporation	-2.81%	10.93%	0.56%	6.15%	-6.51%	30.15%
THL Credit Inc.	-6.24%	0%	-3.49%	-19.09%	-17.15%	13.65%

For the past year Ares Management Corporation has stronger performance than THL Credit Inc.

Summary

Ares Management Corporation beats THL Credit Inc. on 13 of the 13 factors.

THL Credit, Inc. is a business development company specializing in direct and fund of fund investments. The fund seeks to invest in debt and equity securities of middle market companies. It seeks to invest in PIPES, growth, acquisition, market or product expansion, recapitalization, mature, and change of control transactions in both sponsored and unsponsored issuers. The fund does not intend to invest in start-up companies, operationally distressed situations, or companies with speculative business plans. The fund invests primarily in debt securities, including unsecured subordinated or mezzanine debt and second lien secured debt, which may include an associated equity component such as warrants, preferred stock, options to buy minority interest, and other similar securities. Its investments may also include high-yield bonds, private equity investments, securities of public companies that are broadly traded, and securities of non-United States companies. It seeks to invest in outsourced business services, healthcare, financials, retailing, media, and consumer discretionary. The fund may make direct equity investments, including equity investments into or through funds, and also selectively invest in syndicated first lien secured loans, including unitranche investments. It seeks to invest between $10 million and $25 million of capital per transaction in companies with annual revenues ranging from $25 million to $500 million and annual EBITDA between $5 million and $25 million. The fund prefers to be a lead or sole investor in a transaction.