BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) versus Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) Head-To-Head Comparison

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares BlackRock and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BlackRock	$24.22 billion	6.61	$5.55 billion	$39.84	25.89
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	$6.76 billion	0.98	$344.37 million	$0.37	15.05

BlackRock has higher revenue and earnings than Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BlackRock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

BlackRock pays an annual dividend of $22.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. BlackRock pays out 57.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays out 37.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. BlackRock has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.7% of BlackRock shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of BlackRock shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares BlackRock and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BlackRock	24.40%	14.74%	4.95%
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	4.99%	6.24%	0.62%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for BlackRock and Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BlackRock	0	3	16	1	2.90
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	0	2	0	0	2.00

BlackRock presently has a consensus target price of $1,264.61, indicating a potential upside of 22.60%. Given BlackRock’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe BlackRock is more favorable than Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores.

Risk & Volatility

BlackRock has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BlackRock beats Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks. It also provides global risk management and advisory services. The firm manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. It also launches and manages open-end and closed-end mutual funds, offshore funds, unit trusts, and alternative investment vehicles including structured funds. The firm launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and real estate mutual funds. It also launches equity, fixed income, balanced, currency, commodity, and multi-asset exchange traded funds. The firm also launches and manages hedge funds. It invests in the public equity, fixed income, real estate, currency, commodity, and alternative markets across the globe. The firm primarily invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, SMID-cap, large-cap, and multi-cap companies. It also invests in dividend-paying equity securities. The firm invests in investment grade municipal securities, government securities including securities issued or guaranteed by a government or a government agency or instrumentality, corporate bonds, and asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on bottom-up and top-down approach to make its investments. The firm employs liquidity, asset allocation, balanced, real estate, and alternative strategies to make its investments. In real estate sector, it seeks to invest in Poland and Germany. The firm benchmarks the performance of its portfolios against various S&P, Russell, Barclays, MSCI, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch indices. BlackRock, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in New York City with additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts; London, United Kingdom; Gurgaon, India; Hong Kong; Greenwich, Connecticut; Princeton, New Jersey; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Washington, District of Columbia; Toronto, Canada; Wilmington, Delaware; and San Francisco, California.

About Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A. provides a range of financial services and products to public and private sector customers in Colombia and Central America. It offers traditional deposit services and products, including checking accounts, savings accounts, time deposits, and other deposits. The company also provides commercial loans comprising general purpose loans, working capital loans, leases, loans funded by development banks, corporate credit cards, and overdraft loans; consumer loans, such as payroll loans, personal loans, automobile and other vehicle loans, credit cards, overdrafts, leases, and general purpose loans; and microcredit and mortgage loans. In addition, the company offers pension and severance fund management services; investment banking, including services relating to capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and project finance transactions; mobile and online banking services; and bancassurance, insurance, trust, bonded warehousing and brokerage transactions, real estate escrow services, merchandise and document storage and deposit, customs agency, cargo management, surety bond and merchandise distribution services, and payment and collection services. Further, it is involved in equity investments in various sectors, including infrastructure, energy and gas, agribusiness, and hospitality; and treasury operations. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A.