Blackstone (NYSE:BX) PT Lowered to $132.00

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its target price decreased by Bank of America from $141.00 to $132.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 10.78% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on BX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer downgraded Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.14.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock traded down $1.17 during trading on Friday, hitting $119.15. The company had a trading volume of 1,814,772 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,696,072. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $126.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $117.66. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $79.92 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The company has a market cap of $85.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,349,313. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the transaction, the director now owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WASHINGTON TRUST Co boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 7.0% during the third quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 121,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,002,000 after purchasing an additional 7,907 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 303,069 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $40,348,000 after buying an additional 15,875 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $3,734,000. Kampmann Melissa S. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,314,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1,722.9% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 504,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $54,046,000 after purchasing an additional 476,768 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.