Sifting through countless of stocks in the Capital Markets industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Blackstone Inc. or Ares Management Corporation because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation

Blackstone Inc. is an alternative asset management firm specializing in private equity, venture capital, real estate, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage, seed, middle market, mature, late venture, growth capital, emerging growth, turnaround, and later 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. Within fund of fund investments, it seeks to invest in private equity funds, venture capital funds, mezzanine funds, distressed debt/turnaround funds, secondary investment funds & real estate funds. The firm’s corporate private equity business pursues transactions throughout the world across a variety of transaction types, including large buyouts, recapitalization, 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, cargo, data processing, oil & gas production, oil & gas refining, oil & gas storage, building products, home entertainment, B2B, consumer electronics, home supply store, lodging, commercial services & supplies, metal & mineral mining machinery, coal, hazardous waste collection, solid waste collection, waste water treatment, renewable electricity, equity REITs, power generation by nuclear & fossil fuels, personal loan services, chemicals, other specialty retail, biotech, pharmaceuticals, metal, aerospace, healthcare, cable, entertainment services, infrastructure services, transportation infrastructure, exhaust, life sciences, alternative carriers, infrastructure, system software, manufacturing services, enterprise tech and consumer, enterprise software & application, as well as consumer technologies. The firm considers investment in Asia, Latin America, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Africa, Middle East, Beijing, Shanghai, India, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, United Kingdom, North America and South 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 makes equity investments up to $300 million through fund of fund investments. It has a three year investment period. The firm prefers to take majority and minority stakes. 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. through its subsidiary South City Projects (Kolkata) Limited offers residential and commercial real estate development services that include development of township, residential towers, malls, IT parks, stadiums, resorts, hospitals, and schools. Blackstone Inc. was founded in 1985 and is based in New York, New York with additional offices across Asia, Europe, North America and Central America.

Ares Management Corporation operates as an alternative asset manager. Its Direct Lending Group segment provides financing solutions to small-to-medium sized companies. The company’s Private Equity Group segment specializes in early venture, turnaround, mid venture, late venture, recapitalization, growth capital, middle market, mezzanine, distressed and growth buyouts. The firm seeks to invest in healthcare, services, energy, industrials and consumer. The firm seeks to takes majority, minority and shared-control investments primarily in under-capitalized companies in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia and Australia. 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 prefers to invest between $1 million and $500 million in companies having EBITDA between $10 million and $250 million and debt investment value between $10 million and $100 million. Ares Management Corporation was founded in 1997 and is based in Los Angeles, California with additional offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

Latest Capital Markets and Blackstone Inc., Ares Management Corporation Stock News

As of May 13, 2026, Blackstone Inc. had a $94.0 billion market capitalization, compared to the Capital Markets median of $3.7 million. Blackstone Inc.’s stock is down 21.1% in 2026, down 0.6% in the previous five trading days and down 19.72% in the past year.

Currently, Blackstone Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 30.7. Blackstone Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $14.4 billion with a 21.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 5.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $5.943 per share for the current fiscal year. Blackstone Inc. currently has a 4.0% dividend yield.

As of May 13, 2026, Ares Management Corporation had a $27.8 billion market cap, putting it in the 89th percentile of all stocks. Ares Management Corporation’s stock is down 22.5% in 2026, up 1.7% in the previous five trading days and down 28.62% in the past year.

Currently, Ares Management Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 57.3. Ares Management Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $5.9 billion with a 10.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 28.3%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $5.948 per share for the current fiscal year. Ares Management Corporation currently has a 4.4% dividend yield.

How We Compare Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Blackstone Inc.	BX	F
Ares Management Corporation	ARES	F

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Blackstone Inc. has a Value Score of 13, which is Ultra Expensive. Ares Management Corporation has a Value Score of 6, which is Ultra Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Blackstone Inc. or Ares Management Corporation has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Blackstone Inc. or Ares Management Corporation is the better investment when it comes to value.

Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Blackstone Inc.	BX	B
Ares Management Corporation	ARES	D

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Blackstone Inc. has a Quality Score of 72, which is Strong. Ares Management Corporation has a Quality Score of 27, which is Weak.

The Quality Grade Winner: Blackstone Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, Blackstone Inc. has a better overall quality grade than Ares Management Corporation. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, Blackstone Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Blackstone Inc.	BX	D
Ares Management Corporation	ARES	F

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Blackstone Inc. has a Momentum Score of 26, which is Weak. Ares Management Corporation has a Momentum Score of 20, which is Very Weak.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Blackstone Inc. or Ares Management Corporation has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Blackstone Inc. or Ares Management Corporation is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation Grades

In addition to Momentum, Quality and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Estimate Revisions.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Blackstone Inc. or Ares Management Corporation Stock?

Overall, Blackstone Inc. stock has a Value Score of 13, Momentum Score of 26 and Quality Score of 72.

Ares Management Corporation stock has a Value Score of 6, Momentum Score of 20 and Quality Score of 27.

Comparing Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corporation’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.