Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the nineteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $171.00.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BX. UBS Group upped their price objective on Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BX. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at about $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 32.1% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $175.69 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.37, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $179.54 and its 200-day moving average is $152.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $114.88 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.86 dividend. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.21%.

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.