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

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

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Blackstone from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. TheStreet lowered Blackstone from a b rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup lowered Blackstone from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $118.92.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $118.40 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 1-year low of $79.92 and a 1-year high of $133.56. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The company’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Blackstone will post 4.86 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. 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 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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