Head to Head Review: BlackRock Income Trust (NYSE:BKT) and Oxford Square Capital (NASDAQ:OXSQ)

Oxford Square Capital (NASDAQ:OXSQ) and BlackRock Income Trust (NYSE:BKT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Oxford Square Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.3%. BlackRock Income Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.7%. Oxford Square Capital pays out 1,400.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

6.4% of Oxford Square Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.4% of BlackRock Income Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 10.4% of Oxford Square Capital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Oxford Square Capital and BlackRock Income Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oxford Square Capital	6.05%	18.70%	9.93%
BlackRock Income Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Oxford Square Capital and BlackRock Income Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oxford Square Capital	0	0	0	0	N/A
BlackRock Income Trust	0	0	0	0	N/A

Risk and Volatility

Oxford Square Capital has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BlackRock Income Trust has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Oxford Square Capital and BlackRock Income Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oxford Square Capital	$51.82 million	3.62	$17.24 million	$0.03	98.03
BlackRock Income Trust	$8.67 million	30.07	N/A	N/A	N/A

Oxford Square Capital has higher revenue and earnings than BlackRock Income Trust.

Summary

Oxford Square Capital beats BlackRock Income Trust on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oxford Square Capital

Oxford Square Capital Corp. is a business development company, operates as a closed-end, non-diversified management investment company. It is a private equity and mezzanine firm. The firm invests in both public and private companies. It invests in secured and unsecured senior debt, subordinated debt, junior subordinated debt, preferred stock, common stock and syndicated bank loans. The firm primarily invests in debt and/or equity securities of technology-related companies that operate in the computer software, Internet, information technology infrastructure and services, media, telecommunications and telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, hardware, technology-enabled services, semiconductor capital equipment, medical device technology, diversified technology, and networking systems sectors. It concentrates its investments in companies having annual revenues of less than $200 million and a market capitalization or enterprise value of less than $300 million. The firm invests between $5 million and $30 million per transaction. It seeks to exit its investments within 7 years. It serves as the investment adviser to TICC. Oxford Square Capital Corp., formerly known as TICC Capital Corp., was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

About BlackRock Income Trust

BlackRock Income Trust, Inc. is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc. The fund is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund invests in securities of companies that operate across diversified sectors. It invests in securities such as U.S. government sponsored agency securities, non-agency mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, and U.S. treasury obligations. The fund invests its assets in securities that are issued or guaranteed by the US government or one of its agencies or instrumentalities or rated at the time of investment either AAA by S&P or Aaa by Moody’s. BlackRock Income Trust, Inc. was formed on July 22, 1988 and is domiciled in the United States.