Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Receives $169.13 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $171.00.

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Blackstone from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $188.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE BX opened at $174.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. Blackstone has a one year low of $114.88 and a one year high of $200.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $180.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $153.06. The firm has a market cap of $125.64 billion, a PE ratio of 59.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. Analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a $0.86 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BX. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after acquiring an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Blackstone by 213.5% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,375,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $170,345,000 after acquiring an additional 937,084 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 468.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,107,547 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $137,114,000 after purchasing an additional 912,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castleark Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $67,472,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.