Bank of America Cuts Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target to $132.00

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price objective cut by Bank of America from $141.00 to $132.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on BX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. JMP Securities restated a market perform rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a market perform rating and a $118.00 price objective on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered Blackstone from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $122.94.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $118.40 on Friday. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $79.92 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.94.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Reginald J. Brown bought 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $125.62 per share, for a total transaction of $301,488.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 16,949 shares in the company, valued at $2,129,133.38. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% during the 1st 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 grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,778 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,518,000 after purchasing an additional 825 shares during the period. Veracity Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 3,152 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $414,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Accel Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Accel Wealth Management now owns 14,251 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,872,000 after purchasing an additional 1,765 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 32.0% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 11,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,548,000 after purchasing an additional 2,858 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.