Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund (NYSE:NCA) and Horizon Technology Finance (NASDAQ:HRZN) Financial Survey

Horizon Technology Finance (NASDAQ:HRZN) and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund (NYSE:NCA) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Horizon Technology Finance and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horizon Technology Finance	2	4	0	0	1.67
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	0	0	0	0	0.00

Horizon Technology Finance currently has a consensus target price of $9.35, indicating a potential upside of 1.52%. Given Horizon Technology Finance’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Horizon Technology Finance is more favorable than Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Horizon Technology Finance and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horizon Technology Finance	$4.21 million	87.17	-$17.18 million	($0.12)	-76.75
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	$17.68 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund has higher revenue and earnings than Horizon Technology Finance.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

4.9% of Horizon Technology Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.5% of Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Horizon Technology Finance shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Horizon Technology Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.3%. Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Horizon Technology Finance pays out -1,100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Horizon Technology Finance and Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horizon Technology Finance	-3.69%	15.78%	6.58%
Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk and Volatility

Horizon Technology Finance has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund has a beta of 0.33, meaning that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Horizon Technology Finance beats Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Horizon Technology Finance

Horizon Technology Finance Corporation is a business development company specializing in lending and and investing in development-stage investments. It focuses on making secured debt and venture lending investments to venture capital backed companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, cleantech and sustainability industries. It seeks to invest in companies in the United States.

About Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund

Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of California. The fund invests primarily in municipal securities rated Baa/BBB or better. It invests in securities that provide income exempt from federal and California income tax. The fund employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the S&P California Municipal Bond Index and the S&P National Municipal Bond Index. Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund was formed on October 7, 1987 and is domiciled in the United States.