5 Best Asset Management Stocks To Buy According To Hedge Funds

2. KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 57 

KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) invests in private equity and real estate, focusing on both direct and fund of fund investments. Their areas of expertise include buying out companies with borrowed funds, acquiring management control, investing in businesses at different stages of growth, as well as handling distressed or struggling investments in various markets. They invest in a wide range of markets, including the lower and middle market. It is one of the best asset management stocks to invest in. In Q4 2022, KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR)’s assets under management rose to $503.9 billion from $496.2 billion in Q3 and from $470.6 billion a year before. 

On April 14, Benjamin Budish, an analyst at Barclays, maintained an Overweight rating on KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) but reduced the price target on the shares from $66 to $63 before the Q1 results. According to the analyst, the alternative asset manager group will continue to experience low levels of realized income, and fundraising could potentially be delayed until Q2, particularly due to the recent banking crisis.

According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database, 57 hedge funds were long KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR), compared to 59 funds in the prior quarter.

Greenhaven Road Capital made the following comment about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:

“KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) – While some companies do investor days that are broadcast widely, KKR hosts a small group of investors for a Teach In and then quietly releases the deck on their website. The last one was in 2019, and the most recent one was on January 11th (link). Fair warning: the document is 145 pages long and goes into great detail. As for the themes I have been emphasizing, here are a few tidbits from the Teach In and how they fit into the framework.

Low Churn – $113B in “dry powder” (slide 6), capital that KKR is contractually guaranteed to receive from limited partners to invest. Perpetual Capital is 46% of fee-paying AUM (slide 111).

Secular Tailwinds – In addition to the continued allocations to private equity, KKR is increasingly penetrating Insurance and Private Wealth. The assets in these pools are ~4x the size of pension fund assets, which are the traditional private equity clients (slide 10 and 47)…” (Click here to read the full text)