OCSL Stock Recent News

I focus on dividend investing to build a reliable income stream, prioritizing companies with strong fundamentals and consistent dividend growth. Old Republic International stands out for its robust earnings, special dividends, and over 40 years of dividend increases, trading at an attractive valuation. Ares Capital offers a high yield, strong liquidity, and a history of stable dividends, making it a solid choice for income-focused investors.

Since the announcement of tariffs in early April, the BDC market has become a less interesting place for capital deployment (as we can imply from higher discounts). Yet, as it is usually the case, higher discounts mean more opportunities for patient investors. In this article, I discuss two 10%+ yielding BDCs, which, even before the uncertainty level spiked higher, were bargains and now have become even more attractive buys.

Many investors go for big yield with bigger risk. Barf. This report was recently sent to our members. We picked up shares with a 9.5% yield.

BDCs are high-yield assets that can come in handy for income investors. Yet, attractive yields tend to be there for a reason. In the article, I share my key lessons learned from my relatively successful BDC investment journey.

Currently, an average BDC trades at an 8% discount to NAV. However, those with high dividend cut probabilities have 20%+ discounts. Many of these heavily punished BDCs are busts.

BDCs are exposed to some material headwinds. We can see how already several BDCs have cut their dividends. Theoretically, it might make sense to buy those that have made dividend cuts, which could indicate that the new yields are rather sustainable.

Big dividends sound great, but how about big losses? Since Q2 2025 began, book values got smacked. Not talking about share prices. You can tell if the share price declined (hopefully). That would be a worthless article. One of these high-yield sectors has been doing much better than the others.

Oaktree Specialty Lending trades at a 16% discount to NAV, presenting a potential rebound opportunity if credit performance improves in 2025. The investment firm reset its dividend in the last quarter, cutting the base by 27% and introducing a variable supplementary dividend tied to earnings strength. High non-accrual rates remain a key risk, with OCSL's portfolio quality needing improvement to support a valuation re-rating.

Oaktree Specialty Lending's 13.2% dividend yield is risky due to rising non-accruals and a slowing economy, making another dividend cut likely. Despite a recent dividend cut, OCSL's financials continue to decline, with net asset value dropping significantly and non-performing loans increasing. OCSL's balance sheet is in decent shape with low debt-to-equity and strong liquidity, but this doesn't offset the risks from deteriorating fundamentals.

Oaktree Specialty Lending (OCSL) faces vulnerabilities including weak dividend coverage, portfolio concentration, and negative impacts from tariffs. OCSL's portfolio is heavily concentrated in Software & Services, and rising non-accruals indicate worsening borrower performance, exacerbated by high interest rates. Despite trading at a significant discount to NAV, OCSL's declining NAV and increasing non-accruals suggest ongoing financial instability and potential further downside in 2025.