Head to Head Survey: MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) & KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR)

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) and KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) are both large-cap 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.

Dividends

MSCI pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. KKR & Co. Inc. pays an annual dividend of $0.74 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. MSCI pays out 52.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. KKR & Co. Inc. pays out 31.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. MSCI has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and KKR & Co. Inc. has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. MSCI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.0% of MSCI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of KKR & Co. Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of MSCI shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 23.2% of KKR & Co. Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for MSCI and KKR & Co. Inc., as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSCI	0	3	7	1	2.82
KKR & Co. Inc.	0	3	11	1	2.87

MSCI currently has a consensus target price of $665.89, indicating a potential upside of 22.46%. KKR & Co. Inc. has a consensus target price of $145.79, indicating a potential upside of 59.53%. Given KKR & Co. Inc.’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe KKR & Co. Inc. is more favorable than MSCI.

Profitability

This table compares MSCI and KKR & Co. Inc.’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSCI	38.36%	-82.59%	24.29%
KKR & Co. Inc.	11.97%	5.57%	0.99%

Volatility & Risk

MSCI has a beta of 1.3, meaning that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, KKR & Co. Inc. has a beta of 1.93, meaning that its stock price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MSCI and KKR & Co. Inc.”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSCI	$3.13 billion	12.75	$1.20 billion	$15.69	34.66
KKR & Co. Inc.	$19.21 billion	4.24	$2.37 billion	$2.34	39.05

KKR & Co. Inc. has higher revenue and earnings than MSCI. MSCI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KKR & Co. Inc., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

KKR & Co. Inc. beats MSCI on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, an integrated view of risk and return service, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, counterparty, and climate risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG impacts the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other Private Assets segment includes real estate and infrastructure data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. The Private Capital Solutions segment offers tools to help private asset investors across mission-critical workflows, such as sourcing terms and conditions, evaluating operating performance, managing risk and other activities supporting private capital investing. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About KKR & Co. Inc.

KKR & Co., Inc. operates as an investment firm. It offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. The firm’s business segments include Asset Management and Insurance Business. The Asset Management segment engages in providing private equity, real assets, credit and liquid strategies, capital markets, and principal activities. The Insurance Business segment offers retirement, life insurance and reinsurance solutions to clients across individual and institutional markets. The company was founded by Henry Kravis, George R. Roberts, and Jerome Kholberg on May 1, 1976 and is headquartered in New York, NY.