SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) vs. Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Critical Contrast

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) and Blackstone (NYSE:BX) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

This table compares SEI Investments and Blackstone’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SEI Investments	28.85%	29.16%	22.68%
Blackstone	21.84%	23.77%	10.06%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SEI Investments and Blackstone”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SEI Investments	$2.30 billion	5.43	$715.30 million	$5.67	18.32
Blackstone	$14.45 billion	5.83	$3.02 billion	$4.47	25.11

Blackstone has higher revenue and earnings than SEI Investments. SEI Investments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blackstone, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.6% of SEI Investments shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.0% of Blackstone shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of SEI Investments shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Blackstone shares are held by 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for SEI Investments and Blackstone, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SEI Investments	0	1	8	0	2.89
Blackstone	0	11	13	0	2.54

SEI Investments presently has a consensus price target of $123.67, suggesting a potential upside of 19.06%. Blackstone has a consensus price target of $148.71, suggesting a potential upside of 32.50%. Given Blackstone’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Blackstone is more favorable than SEI Investments.

Dividends

SEI Investments pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Blackstone pays an annual dividend of $5.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. SEI Investments pays out 18.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Blackstone pays out 115.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SEI Investments has increased its dividend for 34 consecutive years.

Risk & Volatility

SEI Investments has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackstone has a beta of 1.59, meaning that its share price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SEI Investments beats Blackstone on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SEI Investments

SEI Investments Company is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides wealth management, retirement and investment solutions, asset management, asset administration, investment processing outsourcing solutions, financial services, and investment advisory services to its clients. It provides its services to private banks, independent financial advisers, institutional investors, investment managers, investment advisors, wealth management organizations, corporations, retirement scheme sponsors, not-for-profit organizations, hedge fund managers, registered investment advisers, independent broker-dealers, financial planners, life insurance agents, defined-benefit schemes, defined-contribution schemes, endowments, foundations, and board-designated fund, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm manages separate client-focused portfolios. It also launches and manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in public equity and fixed income markets. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on top-down and bottom-up analysis to make its investments, through its subsidiaries. SEI Investments Company was founded in 1968 and is based in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

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.