Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target Increased to $188.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price target increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $169.00 to $188.00 in a research report report published on Friday, Marketbeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on BX. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Redburn Atlantic began coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.38.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $170.70 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $147.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $133.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $121.99 billion, a PE ratio of 60.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $175.94.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.86 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 121.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total value of $4,610,900.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at $56,567,311.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after buying an additional 7,281,128 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 7.5% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,766,875,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546,886 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 19,048.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,409 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $247,423,000 after purchasing an additional 1,873,573 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,442,227,000 after acquiring an additional 1,290,324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 213.5% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,375,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $170,345,000 after acquiring an additional 937,084 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.