Blackstone Inc. (BX) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.83 on May 6th

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date 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 every year for the last 1 years. Blackstone has a dividend payout ratio of 61.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Blackstone to earn $6.15 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 61.1%.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.6 %

Blackstone stock opened at $118.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $84.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 52 week low of $79.92 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $126.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BX. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $510,355,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 96,256.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,790,996 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $429,634,000 after purchasing an additional 5,784,986 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 36.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,647,047 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $477,471,000 after purchasing an additional 973,598 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,085,890 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $796,765,000 after purchasing an additional 839,885 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.