Blackstone (NYSE:BX) PT Lowered to $100.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its target price reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $105.00 to $100.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the asset manager’s stock.

BX has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Blackstone from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. They set a market perform rating and a $118.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $122.94.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $118.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $84.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $126.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $117.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Blackstone has a 1-year low of $79.92 and a 1-year high of $133.56.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,417,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367,581 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,419,249,000 after purchasing an additional 332,962 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 13.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,588,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744,652 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.