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 Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust 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 Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation

Raymond James Financial, Inc., a diversified financial services company, provides private client group, capital markets, asset management, banking, and other services to individuals, corporations, and municipalities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The Private Client Group segment offers financial planning, investment advisory, securities transaction, investment services, portfolio management services, insurance and annuity products, and mutual funds; support to third-party mutual fund and annuity companies, including sales and marketing support, as well as distribution and accounting, and administrative services; margin loans; securities borrowing and lending services; and custodial, trade execution, research, and other support and services. The Capital Markets segment provides investment banking services, such as equity and debt underwriting, and merger and acquisition advisory; and fixed income and equity brokerage services. This segment also offers institutional sales, securities trading, equity research, and the syndication and management of investments in low-income housing funds and funds of a similar nature. The Asset Management segment provides asset management, portfolio management, and related administrative services to retail and institutional clients; and administrative support services, such as record-keeping. The Bank segment offers various types of loans, including securities-based, corporate, commercial and industrial, commercial real estate and construction, real estate investment trust, residential mortgage, and tax-exempt loans; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured deposit accounts; retail and corporate deposit; and liquidity management products and services. The Other segment engages in the private equity investments comprising investments in third-party funds. The company offers corporate, retail banking and trust services. Raymond James Financial, Inc. was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Northern Trust Corporation, a financial holding company, provides wealth management, asset servicing, asset management, and banking solutions for corporations, institutions, families, and individuals. It operates in two segments, Asset Servicing and Wealth Management. The Asset Servicing segment offers asset servicing and related services, including custody, fund administration, investment operations outsourcing, investment management, investment risk and analytics services, employee benefit services, securities lending, foreign exchange, treasury management, brokerage, transition management, banking, and cash management services. It serves corporate and public retirement funds, foundations, endowments, fund managers, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional investors. The Wealth Management segment offers trust, investment management, custody, and philanthropic services; financial consulting; guardianship and estate administration; family business consulting; family financial education; brokerage; and private and business banking services. This segment also provides global custody, fiduciary services, family office consulting, and technology solutions to high-net-worth individuals and families, business owners, executives, professionals, retirees, and established privately held businesses. In addition, it offers asset management and related services comprising active and passive equity; active and passive fixed income; cash management; multi-asset and alternative asset classes that include private equity and hedge funds of funds; and multi-manager advisory services and products through separately managed accounts, bank common and collective funds, registered investment companies, exchange-traded funds, non-U.S. collective investment funds, and unregistered private investment funds. Further, the company provides overlay and other risk management services. The company was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Latest Capital Markets and Raymond James Financial, Inc., Northern Trust Corporation Stock News

As of September 30, 2026, Raymond James Financial, Inc. had a $30.4 billion market capitalization, compared to the Capital Markets median of $3.2 million. Raymond James Financial, Inc.’s stock is down 1.9% in 2026, down 0.8% in the previous five trading days and down 10.44% in the past year.

Currently, Raymond James Financial, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 13.8. Raymond James Financial, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $15.2 billion with a 15.1% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 15.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $12.128 per share for the current fiscal year. Raymond James Financial, Inc. currently has a 1.4% dividend yield.

As of September 30, 2026, Northern Trust Corporation had a $31.0 billion market cap, putting it in the 90th percentile of all stocks. Northern Trust Corporation’s stock is up 22.1% in 2026, down 4.5% in the previous five trading days and up 26.48% in the past year.

Currently, Northern Trust Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 14.6. Northern Trust Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $9.1 billion with a 24.7% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 36.4%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $11.454 per share for the current fiscal year. Northern Trust Corporation currently has a 2.1% dividend yield.

How We Compare Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust 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 Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Raymond James Financial, Inc.	RJF	C
Northern Trust Corporation	NTRS	C

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.

Raymond James Financial, Inc. has a Value Score of 53, which is Average. Northern Trust Corporation has a Value Score of 55, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust 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 Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust Corporation is the better investment when it comes to value.

Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Raymond James Financial, Inc.	RJF	C
Northern Trust Corporation	NTRS	C

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Raymond James Financial, Inc. has a Growth Score of 60, which is Average. Northern Trust Corporation has a Growth Score of 47, which is Average.

The Growth Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust Corporation has a high enough Growth 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 portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust Corporation is the better investment when it comes to sustainable growth.

Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Raymond James Financial, Inc.	RJF	C
Northern Trust Corporation	NTRS	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.

Raymond James Financial, Inc. has a Quality Score of 52, which is Average. Northern Trust Corporation has a Quality Score of 27, which is Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust Corporation has a high enough Quality 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 portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust Corporation is the better investment when it comes to quality.

Other Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation Grades

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

Momentum grades help 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.

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).

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 Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust Corporation pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Raymond James Financial, Inc. or Northern Trust Corporation Stock?

Overall, Raymond James Financial, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 53, Growth Score of 60 and Quality Score of 52.

Northern Trust Corporation stock has a Value Score of 55, Growth Score of 47 and Quality Score of 27.

Comparing Raymond James Financial, Inc. and Northern Trust 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.