Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $200.00 to $215.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 32.86% from the stock’s previous close.

BX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Blackstone from $160.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.79.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.2%

BX opened at $161.82 on Tuesday. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company’s 50-day moving average is $170.93 and its 200 day moving average is $155.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.50, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS 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%. Research analysts expect that Blackstone will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 ninety days, insiders purchased 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in 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 buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth about $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by 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.