Critical Contrast: SuRo Capital (NASDAQ:SSSS) and Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund (NYSE:ECF)

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

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund and SuRo Capital”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund	$6.93 million	18.96	N/A	N/A	N/A
SuRo Capital	-$33.35 million	-3.49	$5.07 million	($1.89)	-2.63

SuRo Capital has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund and SuRo Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund	0	0	0	0	0.00
SuRo Capital	0	0	2	0	3.00

SuRo Capital has a consensus target price of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.48%. Given SuRo Capital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SuRo Capital is more favorable than Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund.

Dividends

Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.53 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. SuRo Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. SuRo Capital pays out -5.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

35.9% of Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.9% of SuRo Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of SuRo Capital 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.

Risk & Volatility

Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SuRo Capital has a beta of 1.63, indicating that its share price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund and SuRo Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A
SuRo Capital	-801.00%	-7.28%	-5.10%

Summary

Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund beats SuRo Capital on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund

Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund Ltd. is a closed-ended equity mutual fund launched by GAMCO Investors, Inc. The fund is managed by Gabelli Funds, LLC. It invests in the public equity markets. The fund primarily invests in convertible securities. It invests in stocks of companies across market capitalizations. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Bank of America Merrill Lynch All U.S. Convertibles Index, Barclays Balanced U.S. Convertibles Index, and S&P 500 Index. It was formerly known as Ellsworth Fund Ltd. Ellsworth Growth and Income Fund Ltd. was formed on June 27, 1986 and is domiciled in the United States.

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.