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

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. The Company operates through three segments: Asset Management, Strategic Holdings, 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. The Strategic Holdings segment initially represents its participation in the core private equity strategy.

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.

As of September 18, 2024, KKR & Co Inc had a $113.6 billion market capitalization, compared to the Investment Management & Fund Operators median of $584.7 million. KKR & Co Inc’s stock is NA in 2024, NA in the previous five trading days and up 100.51% in the past year.

Currently, KKR & Co Inc’s price-earnings ratio is 30.7. KKR & Co Inc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $22.3 billion with a 17.3% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 15.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.651 per share for the current fiscal year. KKR & Co Inc currently has a 0.5% dividend yield.

Currently, Blackstone Inc’s price-earnings ratio is 59.1. Blackstone Inc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $10.3 billion with a 19.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was -0.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.545 per share for the current fiscal year. Blackstone Inc currently has a 2.2% 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 KKR & Co Inc and Blackstone 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.

KKR & Co Inc has a Quality Score of 38, which is Weak. Blackstone Inc has a Quality Score of 80, which is Strong.

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%.

KKR & Co Inc has a Momentum Score of 88, which is Very Strong. Blackstone Inc has a Momentum Score of 79, which is 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.

KKR & Co Inc has a Earnings Estimate Score of 21, which is Negative. Blackstone Inc has a Earnings Estimate Score of 29, 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 KKR & Co Inc and Blackstone Inc pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

Overall, KKR & Co Inc stock has a Momentum Score of 88, Estimate Revisions Score of 21 and Quality Score of 38.

Blackstone Inc stock has a Momentum Score of 79, Estimate Revisions Score of 29 and Quality Score of 80.

Comparing KKR & Co Inc and Blackstone 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.