Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NAZ) & SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) Head-To-Head Analysis

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NAZ) and SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

15.3% of Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 35.3% of SLR Investment shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.6% of SLR Investment shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SLR Investment has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund and SLR Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A
SLR Investment	40.89%	9.73%	3.90%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund and SLR Investment”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
SLR Investment	$229.31 million	4.19	$76.39 million	$1.77	9.94

SLR Investment has higher revenue and earnings than Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund.

Dividends

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund pays an annual dividend of $0.74 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. SLR Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.3%. SLR Investment pays out 92.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund and SLR Investment, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund	0	0	0	0	0.00
SLR Investment	2	2	0	0	1.50

SLR Investment has a consensus price target of $15.25, indicating a potential downside of 13.35%. Given SLR Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SLR Investment is more favorable than Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund.

Summary

SLR Investment beats Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Arizona. The fund invests in municipal securities and other related investments the income, exempt from regular federal and Arizona income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better and having an average maturity of 18.66 years. It employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Arizona Municipal Bond Index and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index. The fund was formerly known as Nuveen Arizona Premium Income Municipal Fund. Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund was formed on November 19, 1992 and is domiciled in the United States.

About SLR Investment

SLR Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in secured debt (first lien unitranche and second lien), subordinated (unsecured) debt, minority equity, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, general refinancing, growth capital and strategic income-oriented control equity investments in leveraged middle market companies. The fund invests in aerospace and defense; air freight & logistics; asset management; automotive; banking; beverage, food and tobacco; building products; buildings and real estate; broadcasting and entertainment; cargo transport; commercial services and supplies; communications equipment; chemicals, plastics and rubber; containers, packaging and glass; construction & engineering; diversified/conglomerate manufacturing; consumer Finance; distributors; diversified/conglomerate services; diversified financial services; diversified real estate activities; food products; Footwear; Education Services; diversified telecommunications services; electronics; farming and agriculture; finance; grocery; health care equipment and supplies; health care facilities; education and childcare; home and office furnishing, durable consumer products; hotels, motels, inns and gaming; insurance; restaurants, leisure, amusement, and entertainment; leisure equipment tolls and services, media, multiline retail, multi sector holdings; paper and forest products; personal products; professional services, research and consulting services, software; specialty retail; textiles apparel and luxury goods, thrifts and mortgage finance, trading companies and distributors, utilities, and wireless telecommunication services; industrial conglomerates; internet software and services, IT services, machinery; mining, steel, iron, and non-precious metals; oil and gas; personal, food and miscellaneous services; printing and publishing; retail stores; telecommunications; textiles and leather; and utilities. It also invests in life sciences with focus on specialty pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech, health Care Providers and services; health Care technology, enabling technologies and tools. The fund primarily invests in United States. The fund’s investments generally range between $5 million and $100 million. The fund invests in companies with revenues between $50 million and $1 billion and EBITDA between $15 million and $100 million. It invests in the form of senior secured loans, mezzanine loans, and equity securities. It may also seek investments in thinly traded public companies and also make secondary investments. The fund makes non-control equity investments. It primarily exits within three years of the initial capital commitment.