Comparing WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) and Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (NYSE:NXP)

WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) and Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (NYSE:NXP) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.2% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.2% of Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WhiteHorse Finance	10.65%	12.86%	5.59%
Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for WhiteHorse Finance and Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WhiteHorse Finance	1	2	0	0	1.67
Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio	0	0	0	0	0.00

WhiteHorse Finance currently has a consensus target price of $10.50, indicating a potential upside of 9.49%. Given WhiteHorse Finance’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe WhiteHorse Finance is more favorable than Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio.

Risk and Volatility

WhiteHorse Finance has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

WhiteHorse Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.1%. Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio pays an annual dividend of $0.61 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. WhiteHorse Finance pays out 327.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WhiteHorse Finance	$17.10 million	13.04	$20.41 million	$0.47	20.40
Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio	$75.19 million	8.78	N/A	N/A	N/A

WhiteHorse Finance has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio.

Summary

WhiteHorse Finance beats Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WhiteHorse Finance

WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. is business development company, non-diversified, closed end management company specializing in originating senior secured loans, lower middle market, growth capital industries. It invests in broadline retail, office services and supplies, building products, health care services, health care supplies, research and consulting services, application software, home furnishings, specialized consumer services, data processing and outsourced services, leisure facilities, cable, and satellite. It prefers to invest in United States. It typically invests between $5 million to $25 million in companies having enterprise value of between $50 million and $350 million.

About Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio

Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio 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 United States. The fund invests in the investment-grade municipal securities rated Baa and BBB or better. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor's (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index and Lipper General and Insured Unleveraged Municipal Debt Funds Average. Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio was formed on March 19, 1992 and is domiciled in the United States.