Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays boosted 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. Finally, Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.00.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $174.06 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $125.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.81, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $180.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.25. Blackstone has a 52 week low of $114.88 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 12,090.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,219 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 23.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 2,538 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $314,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Andra AP fonden bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth $669,000. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.8% during the second quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 23,369 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,893,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 902,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $111,786,000 after buying an additional 22,233 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.