Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Declares Dividend Increase – $1.44 Per Share

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of 1.44 per share by the asset manager on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86.

Blackstone has decreased its dividend by an average of 1.1% annually over the last three years. Blackstone has a dividend payout ratio of 82.9% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Research analysts expect Blackstone to earn $7.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 81.4%.

Blackstone Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of BX opened at $170.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $122.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.53. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $115.82 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $178.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $163.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone will post 5.86 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on BX. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $192.00 to $186.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

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.