Start here if you're new
what it is
Oaktree Specialty Lending lends money to smaller companies and passes a lot of the income back to you as dividends.
how it gets paid
Last year Oaktree Specialty made $317M in revenue.
what just happened
Latest reported EPS came in at $0.06, down 33% vs. prior year, which is a sharp drop against FY2024's $2.18 full-year EPS.
At a glance
B+ balance sheet — decent shape, but not bulletproof
15/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
12.7x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
14.4% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
$2.18 fy2024 eps est
xvary composite: 49/100 — below average
What they do
Oaktree Specialty Lending lends money to smaller companies and passes a lot of the income back to you as dividends.
OCSL stays in a narrow lane. It writes $5 million to $75 million checks to companies worth $20 million to $150 million, based on its business description. That focus matters because borrowers can get one lender across first lien, second lien, unsecured, mezzanine, and equity co-investments, while you collect a 14.4% dividend yield.
How they make money
$317M
annual revenue
total revenue
$317M
n/a
The products that matter
first-lien debt lending
Senior secured loans
11.2% portfolio yield
this is the core book. the 11.2% portfolio yield tells you what the loans are earning before credit problems and expenses start taking bites out of it.
income engine
higher-risk debt and equity
Subordinated debt & equity
$30M · 9.5% of revenue
dividend and other income was $30M last year, or 9.5% of revenue. This bucket is smaller today, but it is where upside and credit surprises tend to show up first.
higher variance
Key numbers
$2.18
FY2024 EPS
That is up from $1.63 in FY2023 and $0.48 in FY2022, so earnings recovered fast after a messy 2022.
14.4%
dividend yield
You are getting paid a huge cash yield, but that high number also tells you the market wants compensation for risk.
$1.4B
long-term debt
Debt equals 59% of capital, which means leverage → borrowed money → more upside when loans work and more pain when they do not.
12.7x
trailing p/e
That multiple says the stock is cheap versus many financials, but cheap is normal when earnings quality is hard to trust.
Financial health
B+
strength
- balance sheet grade B+ — solid but not elite
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 95 / 100
- long-term debt $1.4B (59% of capital)
B+ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for OCSL right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Latest reported EPS came in at $0.06, down 33% vs. prior year, which is a sharp drop against FY2024's $2.18 full-year EPS.
The near-term picture looks weaker than the full-year numbers. Yahoo shows trailing EPS at $0.87, far below the FY2024 total of $2.18, so your main job is figuring out whether this is a temporary reset or the new level.
$0.06
latest eps
33%
vs. last year eps
$2.18
fy2024 eps
the number that mattered
$0.06 matters because a lender paying a 14.4% yield cannot afford earnings to keep shrinking at a 33% vs. prior year pace.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is dividend coverage breaking on a weaker loan book. With adjusted NII at $0.41 and the quarterly payout at $0.40, there is almost no room for another step down.
med
Dividend coverage is one penny wide
Adjusted NII was $0.41 per share last quarter. The dividend is $0.40. That is coverage, but it is the kind that leaves no margin for error.
If adjusted NII drops below the dividend, the whole yield thesis gets harder to defend.
med
Portfolio yield is moving the wrong way
The average yield on debt investments fell to 11.2% from 11.9% in the prior quarter. Since interest income is 90.5% of revenue, that compression matters fast.
Lower yield on the book means less income to absorb credit losses, fees, and funding costs.
med
Non-accruals are the early warning light
Three additions to the non-accrual portfolio showed up in a recent quarter. Those loans stop behaving like paychecks and start behaving like workout cases.
A larger non-accrual bucket pressures both net investment income and book-value confidence.
med
This is still a leveraged credit vehicle
Long-term debt sits at $1.4B, or 59% of capital. That is normal for a BDC. It also means mistakes in underwriting travel faster than they do in a plain equity business.
If asset quality weakens while leverage stays high, downside does not need much help.
The math is simple: a $0.01 per-share cushion between adjusted NII and the dividend does not leave much room for falling portfolio yield, new non-accruals, or another earnings miss.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
coverage
Adjusted NII per share vs. the $0.40 dividend
This is the number that matters. If coverage stops clearing the payout, the 14.4% yield stops looking like income and starts looking like a warning label.
yield trend
Whether 11.2% portfolio yield stabilizes
One quarter lower can happen. Two in a row starts to look like structural income pressure in a book where interest income is 90.5% of revenue.
credit quality
Any further additions to non-accruals
Three recent additions already told you some borrowers are under strain. More of them would hit both income and confidence.
next report
Q2 2026 earnings
After an 84% EPS miss, the next report matters less for the headline EPS number and more for whether adjusted NII and portfolio yield hold the line.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
15 / 100
in human-speak, analysts do not see this as a steady earner. a lender with changing yields and credit marks rarely is.
price stability
95 / 100
the stock has traded with less drama than the earnings line. That's common in yield names until coverage becomes the story.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for OCSL is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$13
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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