Comparing KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) & BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) and BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Dividends

KKR & Co. Inc. pays an annual dividend of $0.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. BlackRock pays an annual dividend of $22.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. KKR & Co. Inc. pays out 24.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. BlackRock pays out 54.8% 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. KKR & Co. Inc. has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years and BlackRock has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. BlackRock is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares KKR & Co. Inc. and BlackRock’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KKR & Co. Inc.	14.41%	5.88%	1.07%
BlackRock	24.09%	14.90%	4.97%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares KKR & Co. Inc. and BlackRock”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KKR & Co. Inc.	$21.06 billion	3.97	$2.37 billion	$3.14	29.69
BlackRock	$24.22 billion	6.83	$5.55 billion	$41.84	25.54

BlackRock has higher revenue and earnings than KKR & Co. Inc.. BlackRock is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KKR & Co. Inc., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for KKR & Co. Inc. and BlackRock, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KKR & Co. Inc.	0	3	12	0	2.80
BlackRock	0	3	13	1	2.88

KKR & Co. Inc. presently has a consensus target price of $130.00, indicating a potential upside of 39.44%. BlackRock has a consensus target price of $1,308.06, indicating a potential upside of 22.41%. Given KKR & Co. Inc.’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe KKR & Co. Inc. is more favorable than BlackRock.

Risk and Volatility

KKR & Co. Inc. has a beta of 1.79, meaning that its share price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BlackRock has a beta of 1.41, meaning that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

76.3% of KKR & Co. Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.7% of BlackRock shares are held by institutional investors. 23.2% of KKR & Co. Inc. shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of BlackRock shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

BlackRock beats KKR & Co. Inc. on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KKR & Co. Inc.

KKR & Co., Inc. operates as an investment firm. It offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. The firm’s business segments include Asset Management and Insurance Business. The Asset Management segment engages in providing private equity, real assets, credit and liquid strategies, capital markets, and principal activities. The Insurance Business segment offers retirement, life insurance and reinsurance solutions to clients across individual and institutional markets. The company was founded by Henry Kravis, George R. Roberts, and Jerome Kholberg on May 1, 1976 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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.