Business development company Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE: TSLX) will be reporting earnings this Thursday afternoon. Here’s what to look for.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 30.5% last quarter, reporting revenues of $109.4 million, down 8.2% year on year. It was a softer quarter for the company, with a significant miss of analysts’ revenue estimates.

Is Sixth Street Specialty Lending a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s revenue to decline 14.2% year on year to $106.1 million, a reversal from the 3.5% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.50 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Sixth Street Specialty Lending has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates five times over the last two years.

Looking at Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s peers in the financial services segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Capital Southwest delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 18.2%, beating analysts’ expectations by 5.3%, and Oaktree Specialty Lending reported a revenue decline of 13.3%, in line with consensus estimates. Capital Southwest’s stock price was unchanged after the resultsand Oaktree Specialty Lending’s price followed a similar reaction.

Read our full analysis of Capital Southwest’s results here and Oaktree Specialty Lending’s results here.

The outlook for 2025 remains clouded by potential trade policy changes and corporate tax discussions, which could impact business confidence and growth. While some of the financial services stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 3.5% on average over the last month. Sixth Street Specialty Lending is down 6.7% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $23.65 (compared to the current share price of $20.25).

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