BN vs MQBKY: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?
Last updated October 2026
Short answer
BN and MQBKY are similarly sized, but BN trades noticeably cheaper on forward earnings (6.25x vs 19.71x): the market is paying up for MQBKY's profile and pricing BN more conservatively, or for faster growth. Which you prefer comes down to the drivers you believe, and whether adding either over-concentrates what you already own.
BN vs MQBKY: the tie-breaker metrics
Same yardstick, side by side (as of October 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.
| Metric | BN | MQBKY | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $81.95B | $66.50B | Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove. |
| Forward P/E | 6.25 | 19.71 | Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up. |
| Trailing P/E | 67.98 | 25.25 | Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price. |
| Beta | 1.82 | 0.88 | Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through. |
| Price vs 52-week range | 7% of range | 77% of range | Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why. |
| Price / book | 1.93 | 2.61 | How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price. |
Reading it: BN is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.
Before you buy: how BN and MQBKY affect your concentration
The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. BN and MQBKY share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.
This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined BN and MQBKY exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
What does Brookfield Corporation (BN) do?
Brookfield Corporation sits at the top of the Brookfield group and reports through three pillars. Asset management runs through its roughly 73% interest in Brookfield Asset Management, whose fee-bearing capital reached ~$614 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up ~12% year over year on ~$67 billion of year-to-date fundraising that included a ~$40 billion investment mandate from UK annuity provider Just Group. Wealth solutions is the annuity and pension-risk-transfer business (Brookfield Wealth Solutions, built from American National, Argo Group and American Equity Life) that gathers policyholder money and invests it alongside Brookfield's own funds. The third pillar is the operating businesses, held partly through the listed affiliates: Brookfield Renewable (BEP/BEPC), Brookfield Infrastructure (BIP/BIPC), Brookfield Business Partners (BBU/BBUC) and a wholly owned real estate book that includes Canary Wharf, Brookfield Place and Ala Moana Center. Bruce Flatt has run the company since 2002, and the December 2022 reorganisation is what created the BN-versus-BAM split: BN kept the balance sheet and the carried interest, BAM was carved out as the pure-play, high-payout manager.
What does Macquarie Group Limited (MQBKY) do?
Macquarie Group Limited is an Australian financial group organised into four operating businesses. Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) runs infrastructure, energy, real estate and private credit funds plus an Australian public investments business, with A$748.0 billion of assets under management at 30 June 2026. Banking and Financial Services (BFS) is the retail and business bank in Australia, with A$191.5 billion of home loans, A$223.3 billion of deposits and A$163.3 billion of funds on its wealth platform at the same date. Commodities and Global Markets (CGM) provides hedging, financing and trading in gas, power, oil and metals, alongside foreign exchange, interest rate and futures services and an asset finance book. Macquarie Capital does advisory and capital markets work and invests the group's own money through a A$27.2 billion private credit portfolio and a A$5.1 billion equity book. In the year to 31 March 2026 (FY26), CGM contributed A$4.22 billion, MAM A$2.60 billion, BFS A$1.61 billion and Macquarie Capital A$1.49 billion before central costs, and 68% of total income came from outside Australia.
BN vs MQBKY: how do they differ?
Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.
- BN drivers: Fee-bearing capital and carried interest at BAM; The insurance and annuity flywheel.
- MQBKY drivers: Home lending and deposit growth in BFS; Private markets fundraising and performance fees.
Which fits which kind of investor
A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The reported financials are hard to underwrite: consolidation pulls in revenue and debt from entities BN does not fully own, so ~$79 billion of trailing revenue and ~$1.2 billion of attributable net income describe the same company, and an investor has to accept management's distributable earnings framing to value it. For MQBKY, the biggest swing factor is earnings quality: FY26's 30% profit jump leaned on items that do not repeat on a schedule, including the OnStream meters sale, A$1.38 billion of MAM performance fees and Macquarie Capital equity realisations, so FY27 can disappoint even if the underlying businesses grow.
BN or MQBKY: which should you pick?
BN vs MQBKY: the full fundamentals
BN. First quarter 2026 revenue was ~$18.6 billion with net income of ~$1.04 billion, against ~$215 million a year earlier, so the year-over-year jump reflects mark movements more than a step change in operations. The reported P/E near ~86x is not a like-for-like multiple: depreciation on infrastructure and the share of consolidated profit belonging to outside partners both sit between revenue and attributable earnings. Second quarter 2026 results are scheduled for August 13, 2026, with consensus around ~$0.65 per share before the release.
MQBKY. Using the A$238.80 average price of the June 2026 employee share purchase, the ordinary shares traded at roughly 19 times FY26 earnings per share, and the A$7.00 dividend was a yield of about 2.9% before withholding. FY26 profit included sizeable one-off gains, so that multiple looks lower than it would on a normalised year. Second-half FY26 profit of A$3.19 billion was up 93% on the first half, a sign of how uneven earnings are. Operating expenses rose 5%, slower than income. Management gave no numerical FY27 guidance, only business-by-business directions and a cautious stance on capital, funding and liquidity, and US dollar figures for MQBKY will also move with the Australian dollar.
Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): BN shows share price / market cap ~$44 per share, ~$101 billion (Aug 7, 2026 close), revenue (ttm) ~$79 billion, net income attributable (ttm) ~$1.2 billion, a reported P/E near ~86x, distributable earnings (q1 2026) ~$1.6 billion, ~$0.66 per share (~$1.4 billion before realizations); MQBKY shows net operating income (fy26, to mar 2026) ~A$19.5B (up 13%), net profit after tax (fy26) ~A$4.85B (up 30%), earnings per share (fy26) A$12.77, return on equity (fy26) 14.0% (FY25: 11.2%).
The bottom line: BN vs MQBKY
BN and MQBKY are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined BN and MQBKY exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.
Wondering how BN or MQBKY fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Brookfield Corporation with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how BN fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What is the difference between BN and MQBKY?
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Brookfield Corporation sits at the top of the Brookfield group and reports through three pillars. Macquarie Group Limited is an Australian financial group organised into four operating businesses. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.
Is BN or MQBKY the better stock?
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Neither is universally better; they suit different views and risk levels. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.
Which is cheaper, BN or MQBKY?
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On forward P/E (as of October 2026), BN trades at 6.25x and MQBKY at 19.71x, so BN is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.
Should you own both BN and MQBKY?
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Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.
What are the risks of BN vs MQBKY?
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BN: The reported financials are hard to underwrite: consolidation pulls in revenue and debt from entities BN does not fully own, so ~$79 billion of trailing revenue and ~$1.2 billion of attributable net income describe the same company, and an investor has to accept management's distributable earnings framing to value it. Leverage sits mostly at the asset level in non-recourse form, which limits contagion but leaves refinancing exposed to long rates and credit spreads across hundreds of separate structures. The office and retail real estate book has already required writedowns and remains the least liquid piece. The insurance pillar introduces a different risk set entirely: spread compression if rates fall, reserve assumptions on long-dated annuities, and regulators in multiple jurisdictions reviewing private-capital ownership of annuity liabilities. Carried interest and realization gains depend on exit markets that shut for long stretches, and BN's ~1.8 beta means the stock has historically fallen harder than the index when they do. MQBKY: The biggest swing factor is earnings quality: FY26's 30% profit jump leaned on items that do not repeat on a schedule, including the OnStream meters sale, A$1.38 billion of MAM performance fees and Macquarie Capital equity realisations, so FY27 can disappoint even if the underlying businesses grow. Commodities income depends on volatility and client hedging demand, which the company cannot control, and gas storage and transport income can shift between periods. Credit is a second risk: the group took A$478 million of credit impairments in FY26, A$461 million of it in the second half, citing macroeconomic uncertainty and the Middle East conflict, and its loan portfolio grew 23% to A$253 billion, so a downturn in Australian housing or in private credit borrowers would show up quickly. The remaining ~A$700 million Green Investments portfolio, mostly solar, has already taken A$379 million of impairments. Regulatory exposure is real: ASIC sued Macquarie Securities in May 2025 over alleged misreporting of short sales across 14 years, MBL was fined a record A$4.995 million in 2024 over suspicious electricity futures orders, and MBL operates under additional ASIC licence conditions while governance remediation continues. BFS margins are being squeezed by mortgage and deposit competition from the major Australian banks. Finally, MQBKY holders carry risks local holders do not: returns in US dollars depend on the AUD exchange rate, the ADR trades over the counter with thinner volume than MQG on the ASX, franking credits are of no use to most US investors, and dividends are paid net of Australian withholding and depositary fees.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell BN or MQBKY; figures are approximate and dated (as of October 2026). Verify current data before investing.