Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target Raised to $157.00 at BMO Capital Markets

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price target upped by research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $134.00 to $157.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the asset manager’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price would indicate a potential downside of 7.57% from the company’s previous close.

BX has been the subject of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. 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 lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays upped their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic started coverage on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 price objective on the stock. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $166.13.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.1 %

Blackstone stock traded down $1.85 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $169.85. The stock had a trading volume of 2,474,545 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,400,438. The firm has a market cap of $122.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $178.07 and a 200 day moving average of $150.66. Blackstone has a 52-week low of $114.88 and a 52-week high of $200.96. 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 (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The company 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, analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone 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 transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents 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.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BX. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth $31,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.