Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Given New $215.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its target price upped by Morgan Stanley from $200.00 to $215.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on BX. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 13th. HSBC raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $179.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $171.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $183.68.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.7%

NYSE:BX opened at $161.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.45, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $171.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $155.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 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

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 2.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,394,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,494,796 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.