Buy Alternative Asset Managers During Market Weakness: Morgan Stanley

“We continue to see a strong operating backdrop for the alternative asset managers, and believe short-term market weakness creates attractive entry points,” say Morgan Stanley analysts Matthew Kelley and Toni Kaplan in their research note on the industry. “We forecast 16% average total return and reiterate Overweight ratings on The Blackstone Group L.P.(NYSE:BX), KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), and Oaktree Capital Group LLC (NYSE:OAK).”

A key point the analysts make is that the market appears to have ignored above-consensus ENI performance during Q4 and distributions by these companies, as can be seen from the chart and table below.