Blackstone (NYSE:BX) versus 9F (NASDAQ:JFU) Critical Survey

9F (NASDAQ:JFU) and Blackstone (NYSE:BX) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares 9F and Blackstone”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
9F	$41.45 million	0.67	$24.05 million	N/A	N/A
Blackstone	$14.45 billion	6.32	$3.02 billion	$3.91	31.45

Blackstone has higher revenue and earnings than 9F.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for 9F and Blackstone, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
9F	1	0	0	0	1.00
Blackstone	0	11	13	0	2.54

Blackstone has a consensus price target of $147.10, indicating a potential upside of 19.61%. Given Blackstone’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Blackstone is more favorable than 9F.

Volatility & Risk

9F has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackstone has a beta of 1.58, suggesting that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares 9F and Blackstone’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
9F	N/A	N/A	N/A
Blackstone	20.67%	22.86%	9.73%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.0% of Blackstone shares are held by institutional investors. 53.9% of 9F 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 stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Blackstone beats 9F on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About 9F

9F Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates internet securities service platform in the People's Republic of China. The company operates through three segments: Technology Empowerment Services, E-commerce business, and Wealth Management. Its products include digital financial accounts that offer online lending, wealth management, and payment facilitation services; revolving and non-revolving loan products to borrowers, as well as traffic referral services to financial institution partners; and a suite of online wealth management products, such as fixed income products, stocks, insurance, bank wealth management products, and mutual funds to investors in various platforms, including Wukong Licai, 9F Wallet, and 9F Puhui. The company also provides payment facilitation and other products and services that help users to pay credit card bills and household bills comprising utility bills; and other value-added services consisting of credit history search, debt consolidation, and user referral services. In addition, it offers technology empowerment services to banking, automobile, securities investment, and insurance industries; and engages in E-commerce business, which offers various categories of merchandise, including 3C products, beauty and skin care products, food, household appliances, and liquor and beverages. It provides its services to borrowers, investors, and financial institutions partners. The company was formerly known as JIUFU Financial Technology Service Limited and changed its name to 9F Inc. in June 2014. 9F Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

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.