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

Stock analysts at StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) in a research report issued on Thursday. The firm set a “sell” rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on BX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $104.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 24th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $86.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.33.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $86.67 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The company has a market cap of $61.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.52. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $71.72 and a fifty-two week high of $132.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $89.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $88.17.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The asset manager reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.12. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.52% and a return on equity of 19.43%. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.71 EPS. Analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 20,043 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,806,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.5% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,164,639 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60,224 shares during the last quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 6.4% in the third quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,260 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $273,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 44.6% in the third quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 31,624 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,648,000 after acquiring an additional 9,750 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 21.6% in the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 159,111 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,318,000 after acquiring an additional 28,263 shares during the last quarter. 62.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.