GCMG vs OWL: How GCM Grosvenor Inc. and Blue Owl Capital Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 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: OWL 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. GCMG and OWL 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 GCMG and OWL 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.

GCM Grosvenor is an open-architecture alternative asset manager, meaning it does not primarily run its own buyout deals. It designs and manages portfolios of other people's private funds, co-investments and hedge fund strategies on behalf of large institutions, and increasingly invests directly alongside sponsors. The firm was founded in 1971, employs roughly 530 people out of Chicago with offices in New York, London, Frankfurt, Singapore and Hong Kong, and listed on Nasdaq in November 2020 through a merger with the CF Finance Acquisition Corp II blank-check company. As of the first quarter of 2026 it managed about $91.5 billion, up roughly 12% year over year, of which about $73.5 billion was fee-paying. Private markets (private equity, infrastructure, real estate and credit) account for about $64.4 billion, and absolute return strategies, the hedge fund side, carry about $26 billion of fee-paying assets. Clients skew institutional: public pensions are about 36% of the base, insurance companies about 17% and corporations about 12%, with roughly 59% of assets sourced from the Americas, 26% from Asia-Pacific and 15% from EMEA.

Full GCMG guide

Blue Owl Capital Inc. is an alternative asset manager that ended Q1 2026 with about $315 billion in assets under management across three franchises: Credit (direct lending, alternative credit, and investment-grade credit), GP Strategic Capital (minority stakes in other private-market managers), and Real Assets (net-lease real estate and digital infrastructure). A defining feature is that a large share of its capital is permanent or long-dated, which makes fee-related earnings unusually stable versus peers that lean on episodic fund launches. The firm grew AUM past $300 billion in late 2025 and raised roughly $56 billion of new commitments that year, with the private-wealth channel a major driver.

Full OWL guide

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

• GCMG drivers: The 2028 fee-related earnings doubling target; The shift from fund-of-funds to direct and customized mandates.
• OWL drivers: Permanent-capital fee engine; Private-credit and private-wealth growth.

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 public float is small: only about 58.7 million shares trade freely against roughly 202 million fully exchanged units, a consequence of the Up-C structure left over from the 2020 blank-check listing, so day-to-day liquidity is thin and voting control rests with co-founder and executive chairman Michael Sacks rather than public holders. For OWL, blue Owl is heavily exposed to private credit, so a deterioration in middle-market borrower credit quality or a wave of defaults could pressure fee-paying AUM, the value of its BDC relationships, and sentiment.

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 GCMG if you believe its drivers more; OWL 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 GCMG and OWL guides.

GCMG. The gap between the ~27x trailing and ~15x forward multiple is the whole debate in one number: trailing GAAP earnings are depressed by the Up-C structure's non-controlling interest split and by amortization, while forward estimates assume the 2028 fee-related earnings plan is on track. Enterprise value is about $2.97 billion against roughly $422 million of debt, putting EV/EBITDA near 21x, richer than a pure fee-annuity manager would normally screen but below the mega-cap alternatives. Price-to-book of roughly 31x is close to meaningless here because the Up-C structure keeps almost no equity on the Class A balance sheet, so cash-flow and fee-related earnings measures carry the analytical weight. Second quarter 2026 results were scheduled for August 10, 2026, with consensus near $0.18 of adjusted EPS on about $131 million of revenue.

OWL. Blue Owl's revenue grew about 25 percent in 2025 to roughly $2.87 billion, and AUM crossed $315 billion by Q1 2026. The shares fell sharply in 2026, pushing the dividend yield to around 10 percent and leaving the stock below typical sell-side price targets near the mid-$17 range. Valuation therefore hinges on whether investors weight the durable fee stream or the private-credit and rate risks more heavily.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): GCMG shows revenue (ttm) ~$553 million, up ~4% year over year, aum / fee-paying aum ~$91.5 billion and ~$73.5 billion at Q1 2026, up ~12% and ~11%, fee-related earnings (ltm) ~$185 million, up ~6%, at a ~44% adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income (ltm) ~$167 million, up ~12%; Q1 2026 adjusted EPS ~$0.18; OWL shows revenue (ttm) ~$3.1B, revenue (fy2025) ~$2.87B, aum (q1 2026) ~$315B, fee-related earnings (q1 2026) ~$394M.

GCMG and OWL 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 GCMG and OWL exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.