Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Announces $0.83 Quarterly Dividend

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of 0.83 per share by the asset manager on Monday, May 6th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th.

Blackstone has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Blackstone has a payout ratio of 61.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Blackstone to earn $6.15 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 61.1%.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $118.40 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $126.47 and a 200-day moving average of $117.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.70, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 12-month low of $79.92 and a 12-month high of $133.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,294,783.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 826.3% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 528 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 471 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Worth Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $77,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $118.92.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.