Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Earns Equal Weight Rating from Barclays

Barclays reaffirmed their equal weight rating on shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX) in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has a $125.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock, down from their prior price target of $129.00.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on BX. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Blackstone from a b rating to a c+ rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. JMP Securities restated a market perform rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut shares of Blackstone from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $122.94.

Blackstone Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $122.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50-day moving average of $126.31 and a 200 day moving average of $118.06. The firm has a market cap of $87.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.14, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 132.86%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Northwest Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 86.2% in the 4th quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Advantage Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 763.0% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 233 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.