Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eighteen brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $155.65.

BX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citizens Jmp raised Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Bank of America cut their price objective on Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, April 24th.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $137.28 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $100.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $136.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $154.76. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 19.84%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 112.05%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the purchase, the director now owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.00 per share, for a total transaction of $24,900,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,005. This trade represents a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,109,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $1,747,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 716,319 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $123,508,000 after buying an additional 5,951 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.