Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Research Coverage Started at BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX) in a report published on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued an outperform rating and a $190.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on BX. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $175.53.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. 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 cap of $124.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $173.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $153.83.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its 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. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. 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 dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at about $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,394,670,000 after acquiring an additional 1,494,796 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Blackstone by 69.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.