Head to Head Review: Primis Financial (NASDAQ:FRST) and Blackstone (NYSE:BX)

Primis Financial (NASDAQ:FRST) and Blackstone (NYSE:BX) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Primis Financial and Blackstone’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Primis Financial	19.71%	4.98%	0.50%
Blackstone	20.67%	22.86%	9.73%

Volatility and Risk

Primis Financial has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackstone has a beta of 1.63, meaning that its share price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

75.0% of Primis Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.0% of Blackstone shares are held by institutional investors. 10.9% of Primis Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Blackstone shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Primis Financial and Blackstone”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Primis Financial	$127.79 million	2.74	$61.44 million	$2.12	6.67
Blackstone	$14.45 billion	6.01	$3.02 billion	$3.91	29.90

Blackstone has higher revenue and earnings than Primis Financial. Primis Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blackstone, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Primis Financial and Blackstone, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Primis Financial	0	1	2	0	2.67
Blackstone	1	11	11	0	2.43

Primis Financial currently has a consensus price target of $17.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.14%. Blackstone has a consensus price target of $151.05, indicating a potential upside of 29.19%. Given Blackstone’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Blackstone is more favorable than Primis Financial.

Dividends

Primis Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Blackstone pays an annual dividend of $4.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Primis Financial pays out 18.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Blackstone pays out 118.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Blackstone beats Primis Financial on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Primis Financial

Primis Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Primis Bank that provides a range of financial services to individuals and small and medium sized businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include checking, NOW, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposits. The company also provides commercial business and real estate, construction, secured asset based, small business administration, mortgage warehouse lending products, as well as financing for medical, dental, and veterinary businesses; residential mortgage, trust mortgage, home equity lines of credit, secured and unsecured personal, and consumer loans, as well as life insurance premium financing and demand loans. It also offers cash management services comprising investment/sweep, zero balance, and controlled disbursement accounts; and wire transfer, employer/payroll processing, night depository, depository transfer, merchant, ACH origination, and remote deposit capture services. In addition, the company provides debit cards, ATM services, notary services, and mobile and online banking. It operates full-service branches in Virginia and Maryland. The company was formerly known as Southern National Bancorp of Virginia, Inc. and changed its name to Primis Financial Corp. Primis Financial Corp. was founded in 2004 and is based in McLean, Virginia.

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.