Analysts Set Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Price Target at $119.92

Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nineteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $119.92.

A number of research firms have weighed in on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were acquired 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 $4,349,313. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in Blackstone by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,417,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367,581 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Blackstone by 2.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after purchasing an additional 332,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 13.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,588,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744,652 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $123.19 on Monday. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The stock has a market cap of $88.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $126.81 and a 200 day moving average of $117.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.16. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.48 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.07 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Investors of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a $0.94 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.05%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 205.46%.

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.