Reviewing Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ:GLXY) and Ares Management (NYSE:ARES)

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) and Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ:GLXY) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Ares Management and Galaxy Digital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Management	0	6	11	1	2.72
Galaxy Digital	2	2	10	0	2.57

Ares Management presently has a consensus price target of $160.47, suggesting a potential upside of 15.98%. Galaxy Digital has a consensus price target of $39.58, suggesting a potential upside of 46.33%. Given Galaxy Digital’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Galaxy Digital is more favorable than Ares Management.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

50.0% of Ares Management shares are held by institutional investors. 34.7% of Ares Management shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 51.5% of Galaxy Digital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Ares Management and Galaxy Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Management	10.63%	25.42%	6.35%
Galaxy Digital	-0.75%	-6.25%	-1.67%

Volatility & Risk

Ares Management has a beta of 1.49, suggesting that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Galaxy Digital has a beta of 5.1, suggesting that its stock price is 410% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ares Management and Galaxy Digital”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ares Management	$5.60 billion	8.16	$527.36 million	$2.18	63.46
Galaxy Digital	$61.36 billion	0.17	-$241.35 million	($0.65)	-41.62

Ares Management has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Galaxy Digital. Galaxy Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ares Management, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ares Management beats Galaxy Digital on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ares Management

Ares Management Corporation operates as an alternative asset manager in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company's Tradable Credit Group segment manages various types of investment funds, such as commingled and separately managed accounts for institutional investors, and publicly traded vehicles and sub-advised funds for retail investors in the tradable and non-investment grade corporate credit markets. Its Direct Lending Group segment provides financing solutions to small-to-medium sized companies. The company's Private Equity Group segment focuses on majority or shared-control investments primarily in under-capitalized companies. Its Real Estate Group segment invests in new developments and the repositioning of assets, with a focus on control or majority-control investments; and originates and invests in a range of self-originated financing opportunities for middle-market owners and operators of commercial real estate. The firm was previously known as Ares Management, L.P. Ares Management Corporation was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with additional offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Ares Management GP LLC is the general partner of the company.

About Galaxy Digital

Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. is a financial services and an investment management company, which engages in the digital asset, cryptocurrency, and block chain technology sectors. It operates through the following segments: Trading, Principal Investment, Asset Management, Investment Banking, Mining, and Corporate & Other. The Trading segment manages positions in cryptocurrency and other liquid digital assets contributed to the business at the outset and continues to invest and trade in those and related assets. The Principal Investment segment includes portfolio of private principal investments across the block chain ecosystem, including early- and later-stage equity, pre-launch network contributions, and other structured alternative investments. The Asset Management segment manages capital on behalf of third parties in exchange for management fees and performance-based compensation. The Investment Banking segment offers the spectrum of investment banking, including, but not limited to general corporate advisory, mergers and acquisition, transaction advisory, restructuring and capital rising. The Mining segment focuses to provide financial services for North American miners, through its partnerships. The Corporate & Other consists of the partnership’s unallocated corporate overhead and other unallocated costs not identifiable to any of the reportable segments. The company was founded by Michael Edward Novogratz on February 10, 2006 and is headquartered in New York, NY.