The Best in Investment Management: BlackRock, Inc. (BLK), T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (TROW)

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) is one of the largest mutual fund companies in the U.S. with $577 billion under management. While they don’t offer quite as diverse of a product line as BlackRock, they are very well-known and well-liked for their broad line of no-load mutual funds. Clients love these because it makes it more practical to frequently move money around between funds.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) looks a bit expensive when compared with BlackRock, trading at 18.9 times forward earnings with similar earnings growth projected for both companies. These are both excellent companies that are loved by their respective clients, and this is why they have been as successful as they have. BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) just seems to be the cheaper investment right now.

To sum it up, BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) is well positioned to increase their amount of assets under management over the next few years, which will also lead to earnings growth. The increased risk tolerance coming back into the market should result in more investments in equity funds, not to mention that as the economy recovers, the funds themselves should perform well. Being that BlackRock’s historic average forward P/E ratio is over 17, the stock still looks attractive at current levels and should have some room to grow.

The article The Best in Investment Management originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Matthew Frankel.

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