Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Stock

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price objective hoisted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $168.00 to $180.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on BX. JMP Securities raised their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $152.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $168.71.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $177.96 on Friday. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.85 billion, a PE ratio of 47.84, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $149.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $150.68.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be paid a $1.03 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,053,344.11. This trade represents a 0.64% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 2,849,769 shares of company stock valued at $54,932,307 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. NorthRock Partners LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 13.1% during the 2nd quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 11,225 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,679,000 after acquiring an additional 1,304 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the second quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,396 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,256,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 7.4% in the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 11,024 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,649,000 after buying an additional 762 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 63,045 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,430,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Architects LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wealth Architects LLC now owns 1,687 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.