Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Earns Sell Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) in a research note released on Thursday. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Blackstone from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Blackstone from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Blackstone from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Blackstone from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and raised their price target for the company from $104.00 to $105.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, CICC Research started coverage on Blackstone in a report on Thursday, January 12th. They issued an outperform rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $112.33.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $86.67 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $61.22 billion, a PE ratio of 36.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $89.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $88.17. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $71.72 and a 1 year high of $132.93.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The asset manager reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.43% and a net margin of 20.52%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.71 EPS. Analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.20%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 153.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 99,889,464 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.00, for a total value of $1,198,673,568.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.37, for a total value of $4,014,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 350,005 shares in the company, valued at $35,130,001.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 99,889,464 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.00, for a total value of $1,198,673,568.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,532,616 shares of company stock worth $1,726,902,967 in the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of BX. Fairfield Bush & CO. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 56.1% in the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 4,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530 shares during the period. United Bank boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.2% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 8,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,072,000 after acquiring an additional 2,153 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 10.4% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 10,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,392,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034 shares during the period. Insight Advisors LLC PA boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Insight Advisors LLC PA now owns 18,446 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,341,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12.8% in the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 38,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,878,000 after acquiring an additional 4,366 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.39% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone

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Blackstone, Inc engages in the provision of investment and fund management services. It operates through the following segments: Real Estate, Private Equity, Credit and Insurance, and Hedge Fund Solutions. The Real Estate segment includes management of opportunistic real estate funds, Core+ real estate funds, high-yield real estate debt funds, and liquid real estate debt funds.