Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Earns Equal Weight Rating from Barclays

Barclays reissued their equal weight rating on shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX) in a research note released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $125.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock, down from their prior target price of $129.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on BX. Oppenheimer lowered Blackstone from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Blackstone from a buy rating to a neutral rating and upped their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. TheStreet downgraded Blackstone from a b rating to a c+ rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Thirteen 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, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $122.94.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of BX opened at $118.40 on Friday. Blackstone has a 12-month low of $79.92 and a 12-month high of $133.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $126.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.94.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 132.86%.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other 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 transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. RMB Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. RMB Capital Management LLC now owns 4,531 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $931,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the period. Fragasso Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 3,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $428,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 3,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $435,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marino Stram & Associates LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.