Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) and MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Critical Survey

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

MSCI has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares MSCI and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSCI	40.31%	-50.69%	25.15%
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	21.03%	11.53%	4.97%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares MSCI and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSCI	$3.13 billion	14.96	$1.20 billion	$18.89	34.73
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	$1.42 billion	3.89	$563.46 million	$1.20	19.73

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.0% of MSCI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.5% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of MSCI shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

MSCI pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.0%. MSCI pays out 43.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund pays out 256.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. MSCI has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for MSCI and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSCI	1	0	14	1	2.94
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund	1	7	4	0	2.25

MSCI presently has a consensus target price of $683.69, indicating a potential upside of 4.22%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a consensus target price of $24.72, indicating a potential upside of 4.40%. Given Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is more favorable than MSCI.

Summary

MSCI beats Blackstone Secured Lending Fund on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc. is a global provider of investment decision-support tools and services for asset managers, banks, insurers, pension funds and other financial institutions. Its offerings include indexes used to benchmark and develop investment products, as well as portfolio risk, performance and attribution analytics. The company also provides environmental, social and governance data and research, climate-related tools, and analytics covering private assets and real estate. These products help clients assess investments, manage portfolios and evaluate risks across public and private markets.

About Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is a business development company (BDC) that provides financing to private businesses. Its investment portfolio focuses primarily on senior secured, floating-rate loans, particularly first-lien debt, to established middle-market companies. The fund may also invest in second-lien loans, unsecured debt and equity securities. Its investments span a range of industries, and its lending activity is focused mainly on companies in the United States. Formed in 2018, Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is externally managed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance, part of Blackstone.