Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Free Report) and Donnelley Financial Solutions (NYSE:DFIN – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
70.0% of Blackstone shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of Donnelley Financial Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Blackstone shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of Donnelley Financial Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Blackstone and Donnelley Financial Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Blackstone | 0 | 12 | 13 | 0 | 2.52 |
| Donnelley Financial Solutions | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2.80 |
Blackstone currently has a consensus price target of $144.57, suggesting a potential upside of 15.09%. Donnelley Financial Solutions has a consensus price target of $74.00, suggesting a potential upside of 6.03%. Given Blackstone’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Blackstone is more favorable than Donnelley Financial Solutions.
Volatility & Risk
Blackstone has a beta of 1.52, indicating that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Donnelley Financial Solutions has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Blackstone and Donnelley Financial Solutions”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Blackstone | $13.78 billion | 6.84 | $3.02 billion | $4.50 | 27.91 |
| Donnelley Financial Solutions | $787.20 million | 2.16 | $32.40 million | $3.79 | 18.42 |
Blackstone has higher revenue and earnings than Donnelley Financial Solutions. Donnelley Financial Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blackstone, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Blackstone and Donnelley Financial Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Blackstone | 22.11% | 23.16% | 9.61% |
| Donnelley Financial Solutions | 12.37% | 26.70% | 12.70% |
Summary
Blackstone beats Donnelley Financial Solutions on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Blackstone
Blackstone Inc. is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services. The real estate segment specializes in opportunistic, core+ investments as well as debt investment opportunities collateralized by commercial real estate, and stabilized income-oriented commercial real estate across North America, Europe and Asia. The firm's corporate private equity business pursues transactions throughout the world across a variety of transaction types, including large buyouts,special situations, distressed mortgage loans, mid-cap buyouts, buy and build platforms, which involves multiple acquisitions behind a single management team and platform, and growth equity/development projects involving significant majority stakes in portfolio companies and minority investments in operating companies, shipping, real estate, corporate or consumer loans, and alternative energy greenfield development projects in energy and power, property, dislocated markets, shipping opportunities, financial institution breakups, re-insurance, and improving freight mobility, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, infrastructure, enterprise tech and consumer, as well as consumer technologies. The firm considers investment in Asia and Latin America. It seeks to invest between $0.25 million and $900 million per transaction. It invests in companies with enterprise value between $500 million and $5000 million. It has a three year investment period. Its hedge fund business manages a broad range of commingled and customized fund solutions and its credit business focuses on loans, and securities of non-investment grade companies spread across the capital structure including senior debt, subordinated debt, preferred stock and common equity. Blackstone Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, New York with additional offices across Asia, Europe, North America and Central America.
About Donnelley Financial Solutions
Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. provides innovative software and technology-enabled financial regulatory and compliance solutions in the United States, Asia, Europe, Canada, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Capital Markets Software Solutions (CM-SS); Capital Markets Compliance and Communications Management (CM-CCM); Investment Companies Software Solutions (IC-SS); and Investment Companies Compliance and Communications Management (IC-CCM). The CM-SS segment provides Venue and ActiveDisclosure solutions to public and private companies to manage public and private transactional and compliance processes; collaborate; and tag, validate, and file SEC documents. The CM-CCM segment offers tech-enabled services and print and distribution solutions to public and private companies for deal solutions and SEC compliance requirements. The IC-SS segment provides clients with the Arc Suite platform that contains a comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions, including ArcDigital, ArcReporting, ArcPro, and ArcRegulatory, as well as services that enable storage and management of compliance and regulatory information in a self-service and central repository for accessing, assembling, editing, translating, rendering, and submitting documents to regulators and investors. The IC-CCM segment offers tech-enabled solutions for creating, filing and distributing regulatory communications, and solutions for investor communications, as well as XBRL and iXBRL-formatted filings pursuant for Investment Company Act through the SEC’s EDGAR system. This segment also provides turnkey proxy services, including discovery, planning and implementation, print and mail management, solicitation, tabulation services, stockholder meeting review, and expert support. Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
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