Capital Southwest Corporation (CSWC)
Financials · NMS
Price as at 30 Sept 2026, 17:21 UTC. Quotes are delayed.
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Capital Southwest Corporation trades at $23.20, which is 130% below the $53.26 our fair value estimate puts on the business. On that measure alone it screens as undervalued, though a valuation model is an argument rather than a measurement, and the market is frequently right about why something is cheap.
Our moat model scores it 63 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 12.7 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
CSWC dividend history
Dividends per share by year
| Year | Total per share | Payments |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 (year to date) | $0.253 | 1 |
| 2025 | $2.31 | 7 |
| 2024 | $2.53 | 4 |
| 2023 | $2.42 | 4 |
| 2022 | $2.18 | 4 |
| 2021 | $2.56 | 4 |
| 2020 | $2.04 | 4 |
| 2019 | $2.72 | 4 |
| 2018 | $2.07 | 4 |
| 2017 | $1.16 | 4 |
| 2016 | $0.380 | 4 |
Split-adjusted amounts in the listing currency, grouped by the calendar year of the ex-dividend date, from the filed record. Growth and streak figures compare complete years only.
CSWC earnings and analyst estimates
Recommendation mix, 5 published ratings
Estimates are the published analyst consensus and move often. An earnings date is scheduled, not certain, and a share tends to reprice most violently on the day itself.
About Capital Southwest Corporation
Capital Southwest Corporation is a business development company. The firm specializes in credit and private equity and venture capital investments in lower middle market companies, mezzanine, later stage, mature, late venture, emerging growth, buyouts, industry consolidation, recapitalizations and growth capital investments. The firm does not invest in startups, publicly traded companies, real estate developments, project finance opportunities, oil and gas exploration businesses, troubled companies, turnarounds, and companies in which significant senior management is departing. In lower middle market, the firm typically invests in growth financing, bolt-on acquisitions, new platform acquisitions, refinancing, dividend recapitalizations, sponsor-led buyouts, and management buyout situations. The investment structures are unitranche debt, subordinated debt, senior debt, first and second lien debt, and preferred and common equity. The firm makes equity co-investments alongside debt investments, up to 20 percent of total check and only makes non-control investments. The firm is industry agnostic, but it prefers to invest in industrial manufacturing and services, value-added distribution, healthcare products and services, business services, specialty chemicals, food and beverage, tech-enabled services and SaaS models. The firm seeks to invest in energy services and products, industrial technologies, and specialty chemicals and products. Within energy services and products, the firm seeks to invest in each segment of the industry, including upstream, midstream and downstream, excluding exploration and production, with a focus on differentiated products and services, equipment and tool rental, consumable products, and drilling and completion chemicals. Within industrial technologies, it seeks to invest in automation and process controls, handling and packaging equipment, industrial filtration and fluid handling, measurement, monitoring and testing, professional tools, and sensors and instrumentation. Within specialty chemicals and products, the firm seeks to invest in businesses that develop and manufacture highly differentiated chemicals and products including adhesives, coatings and sealants, catalysts and absorbents, cosmeceuticals, fine chemicals, flavors and fragrances, performance lubricants, polymers, plastics and composites, chemical dispensing and filtration equipment, professional and industrial trade consumables and tools, engineered solutions for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical installations, specified high performance materials for fire protection and oilfield applications. It may also invest in exceptional opportunities in building products. The firm seeks to invest in the United States and North America. The firm seeks to make investments ranging from $5 million to $25 million in securities. Its typical financing size is between $5 million and $75 million, target hold size is between $5 million and $45 million, and the firm is willing to backstop up to $55 million with an active network of co-investors. It seeks to invest in firms with minimum EBITDA between $3 million and $25 million. In addition to making direct investments, the firm allocates capital to syndicated first and second lien term loans in the upper middle market. It prefers to take a majority or minority stake. The firm has the flexibility to hold investments for very long periods in its portfolio companies. It may also invest through warrants. The firm prefers to take board participation in its portfolio companies. Capital Southwest Corporation was founded on April 19, 1961 and is based in Dallas, Texas.
Company profile, industry and headcount are as reported by our data provider and can lag a company's own filings by a reporting period. The annual report is the authority.
CSWC passes 6 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Super investor ownership
5 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Two Sigma, TWO SIGMA INVESTMENTS, LP$28.06M · 0.0% of book
- Marshall Wace, MARSHALL WACE, LLP$2.87M · 0.0% of book
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$2.10M · 0.0% of book
- Israel Englander, MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC$581.9K · 0.0% of book
- D. E. Shaw, D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.$295.6K · 0.0% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
CSWC peers
The largest companies in the same industry (Asset Management), then in the same sector.
- KKR KKR & Co. Inc.
- APO Apollo Global Management, Inc.
- ARES Ares Management Corporation
- CG The Carlyle Group Inc.
- BEN Franklin Templeton Inc.
- BAMGF Brookfield Corporation
- OWL Blue Owl Capital Inc.
- PS Pershing Square Inc.
Every financials company we cover is on the Financials hub.
Common questions
Is Capital Southwest Corporation (CSWC) undervalued?
Against our fair value estimate of $53.26, CSWC at $23.20 is 130% below fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation. It is built from normalized earning power with growth capped deliberately low, which understates companies whose value is mostly future growth.
Which funds own CSWC?
5 of the institutions we track reported a position in CSWC in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is CSWC's P/E ratio?
CSWC trades at 12.7 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
Does Capital Southwest Corporation (CSWC) pay a dividend?
Yes. Capital Southwest Corporation yields 10.69% at the current share price. It has paid $0.639 per share over the trailing twelve months. It has paid a dividend in each of the last 39 complete calendar years. A dividend is declared by the board and can be cut at any time; a yield is a fact about the current price, not a promise.
Where does SteadyShares get its CSWC data?
Fundamentals for CSWC come from company filings and exchange data, as listed on NMS; institutional ownership comes from SEC 13F filings. The share price shown was last refreshed on 30 Sept 2026, 17:21 UTC and is delayed. Our data quality score for this company is 100/100, which is the share of the inputs behind our scores that were actually available rather than assumed. Metrics we do not hold are left out of the page rather than estimated.
The full research page for CSWC, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.