Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Issues Earnings Results

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98, RTT News reports. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $118.40 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $126.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.84. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56. The company has a market capitalization of $84.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 132.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Blackstone by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Blackstone by 2.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after buying an additional 332,962 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 7.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $695,952,000 after buying an additional 522,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $510,355,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.