Blackstone’s (BX) Equal Weight Rating Reaffirmed at Barclays

Barclays reaffirmed their equal weight rating on shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has a $125.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock, down from their prior price target of $129.00.

BX has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Citigroup lowered shares of Blackstone from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their target price for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of Blackstone from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $118.92.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.6 %

BX stock opened at $118.40 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $126.47 and a 200 day moving average of $117.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.61 billion, a PE ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone has a 52 week low of $79.92 and a 52 week high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 132.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 over the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in Blackstone by 0.9% during the first quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 55,949 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,826,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares during the period. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.2% during the first quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,778 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,518,000 after buying an additional 825 shares during the period. Veracity Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% during the first quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 3,152 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $414,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. Accel Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 14.1% during the first quarter. Accel Wealth Management now owns 14,251 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,872,000 after buying an additional 1,765 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 32.0% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 11,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,548,000 after buying an additional 2,858 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently 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.