Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.83

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.83 per share by the asset manager on Monday, May 6th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th.

Blackstone has raised its dividend by an average of 20.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Blackstone has a payout ratio of 61.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Blackstone to earn $6.05 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.1%.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:BX opened at $123.77 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $88.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 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 12 month low of $79.92 and a 12 month high of $133.56. The company’s 50 day moving average is $126.21 and its 200-day moving average is $118.24.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

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.