Which Is a Better Investment, Blackstone Inc or KKR & Co Inc Stock? (2024)

Sifting through countless of stocks in the Investment Management & Fund Operators industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Blackstone Inc or KKR & Co Inc because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Blackstone Inc and KKR & Co Inc compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

Blackstone Inc. is an alternative asset manager. The Company’s asset management business includes investment vehicles, which is focused on real estate, private equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, credit, real assets, and secondary funds. The Company operates through four segments: Real Estate, Private Equity, Credit & Insurance, and Hedge Fund Solutions. Its Blackstone Real Estate Partners (BREP) business makes investments in logistics, office, rental housing, hospitality, and retail properties, as well as in a variety of real estate operating companies. The Private Equity segment includes Blackstone Capital Partners, Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, Blackstone Capital Partners Asia, and Blackstone Core Equity Partners. The Credit & Insurance segment includes Blackstone Credit and Blackstone Insurance Solutions (BIS). The Hedge Fund Solutions segment includes Blackstone Alternative Asset Management and GP Stakes businesses.

KKR & Co. Inc. is an investment company, which offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. The Company's asset management business offers a range of investment management services to fund investors around the world. It operates in two segments: Asset Management and Insurance. The Asset Management business offers a range of investment management services to investment funds, vehicles and accounts (including Global Atlantic) and provides capital markets services to portfolio companies and third parties. The Insurance business is operated by Global Atlantic, which is a United States retirement and life insurance company that provides a suite of protection, legacy and savings products and reinsurance solutions to clients across individual and institutional markets. It offers individuals fixed-rate annuities, fixed-indexed annuities and targeted life products through a network of banks, broker-dealers and independent marketing organizations.

As of April 19, 2024, Blackstone Inc had a $147.5 billion market capitalization, compared to the Investment Management & Fund Operators median of $584.7 million. Blackstone Inc’s stock is NA in 2024, NA in the previous five trading days and up 27.93% in the past year.

Currently, Blackstone Inc’s price-earnings ratio is 41.8. Blackstone Inc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $10.3 billion with a 13.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was -24.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.853 per share for the current fiscal year. Blackstone Inc currently has a 3.6% dividend yield.

Currently, KKR & Co Inc’s price-earnings ratio is 22.9. KKR & Co Inc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $15.2 billion with a 24.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 57.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.797 per share for the current fiscal year. KKR & Co Inc currently has a 0.7% dividend yield.

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Blackstone Inc and KKR & Co Inc’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Blackstone Inc has a Quality Score of 77, which is Strong. KKR & Co Inc has a Quality Score of 25, which is Weak.

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Blackstone Inc has a Momentum Score of 69, which is Strong. KKR & Co Inc has a Momentum Score of 86, which is Very Strong.

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Blackstone Inc has a Earnings Estimate Score of 34, which is Negative. KKR & Co Inc has a Earnings Estimate Score of 37, which is Negative.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Blackstone Inc and KKR & Co Inc pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

Overall, Blackstone Inc stock has a Momentum Score of 69, Estimate Revisions Score of 34 and Quality Score of 77.

KKR & Co Inc stock has a Momentum Score of 86, Estimate Revisions Score of 37 and Quality Score of 25.

Comparing Blackstone Inc and KKR & Co Inc’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.