Analysts Set Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Target Price at $172.38

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $172.3750.

BX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities increased their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $175.40 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $129.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.15, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $174.09 and a 200 day moving average of $153.01. Blackstone has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.Blackstone’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BX. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Traub Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $27,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.