Head to Head Contrast: StoneX Group (NASDAQ:SNEX) vs. BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) and StoneX Group (NASDAQ:SNEX) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares BlackRock and StoneX Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BlackRock	24.22%	16.08%	5.32%
StoneX Group	0.33%	20.18%	1.05%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.7% of BlackRock shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.9% of StoneX Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of BlackRock shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.8% of StoneX Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares BlackRock and StoneX Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BlackRock	$24.22 billion	7.21	$5.55 billion	$43.98	25.64
StoneX Group	$132.38 billion	0.05	$305.90 million	$4.19	13.63

BlackRock has higher earnings, but lower revenue than StoneX Group. StoneX Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BlackRock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

BlackRock has a beta of 1.41, indicating that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, StoneX Group has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for BlackRock and StoneX Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BlackRock	0	2	15	1	2.94
StoneX Group	0	3	1	0	2.25

BlackRock currently has a consensus target price of $1,332.35, indicating a potential upside of 18.16%. StoneX Group has a consensus target price of $112.00, indicating a potential upside of 96.18%. Given StoneX Group’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe StoneX Group is more favorable than BlackRock.

Summary

BlackRock beats StoneX Group on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About StoneX Group

StoneX Group Inc. operates as a global financial services network that connects companies, organizations, traders, and investors to market ecosystem worldwide. The company operates through Commercial, Institutional, Retail, and Global Payments segments. The Commercial segment provides risk management and hedging, exchange-traded and OTC products execution and clearing, voice brokerage, market intelligence, physical trading, and commodity financing and logistics services. The Institutional segment offers equity trading services to institutional clients; clearing and execution services in futures exchanges; brokerage foreign exchange services for the financial institutions and professional traders; and OTC products, as well as originates, structures, and places debt instruments in capital markets. This segment also operates as an institutional dealer in fixed income securities to serve asset managers, commercial bank trust and investment departments, broker-dealers, and insurance companies, as well as engages in asset management business. The Retail segment provides trading services and solutions in the global financial markets, including spot foreign exchange, precious metals trading, and contracts for differences; and wealth management services, as well as offers physical gold and other precious metals in various forms and denominations through Stonexbullion.com. The Global Payments segment provides customized payment, technology, and treasury services to banks and commercial businesses, charities, and non-governmental and government organizations; and pricing and payments services. The company was formerly known as INTL FCStone Inc. and changed its name to StoneX Group Inc. in July 2020. StoneX Group Inc. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in New York, New York.