BX vs MQBKY: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

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.

Reading it: BX 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.

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. BX 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 BX 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.

Blackstone Inc. is the world's largest alternative asset manager, investing on behalf of pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, endowments, and increasingly individual investors. It runs money across several major strategies: real estate (historically its largest), private equity, credit and insurance, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, secondaries, and hedge fund solutions. The business model has two engines. First, it earns recurring management fees on the capital it manages, which produces relatively stable fee-related earnings and grows as assets under management climb. Second, it earns performance fees (carried interest and incentive fees) when its funds generate strong returns, which are lumpier and depend on realizations and market conditions. Because most of its capital is locked up in long-dated funds, Blackstone has durable, contracted fee streams, and it distributes a large share of its distributable earnings to shareholders as a variable quarterly dividend rather than a fixed one.

Full BX guide

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.

Full MQBKY guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• BX drivers: Growth of assets under management; Private wealth and retail channel.
• MQBKY drivers: Home lending and deposit growth in BFS; Private markets fundraising and performance fees.

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: Blackstone's risks stem from its market-linked, cyclical model. 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.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick BX if you believe its drivers more; MQBKY if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the BX and MQBKY guides.

BX. These figures are qualitative and approximate as of the asOf date, not precise real-time numbers. Because performance fees and the variable dividend move with realizations and markets, quarterly results can be uneven. Confirm live AUM, revenue, fee-related earnings, dividend, and valuation before acting.

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, Jul 2026): BX shows assets under management More than $1.3 trillion as of early 2026, the largest of any alternative asset manager, after record inflows (roughly $70 billion in a recent quarter), revenue trend Full-year 2025 revenue was about $14.5 billion, up roughly $1.2 billion year over year; management and advisory fees were about $8.1 billion, profitability Emphasizes fee-related earnings (recurring management fees) as the stable core, with performance fees (carried interest) adding lumpier upside tied to realizations, capital returns Pays a variable quarterly dividend tied to distributable earnings (not a fixed rate) plus buybacks, so the payout rises and falls with results; 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%).

BX 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 BX and MQBKY exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.