Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Now Covered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) in a report published on Thursday. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the asset manager’s stock.

BX has been the topic of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective 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. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $86.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, January 27th. CICC Research began coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. They set an outperform rating on the stock. 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 report on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $86.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $112.33.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $84.89 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $59.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.52. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.03. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $71.72 and a fifty-two week high of $132.93.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The asset manager reported $1.07 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 6th were paid a $0.91 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 3rd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 153.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 11,750,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.17, for a total transaction of $260,497,500.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 11,750,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.17, for a total transaction of $260,497,500.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 205,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.00, for a total transaction of $6,781,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 9,844,228 shares in the company, valued at $324,859,524. 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. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $979,000. Lakewood Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $62,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 88.2% in the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 201,714 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,286,000 after buying an additional 94,514 shares during the last quarter. Cravens & Co Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $551,000. Finally, Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $174,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.39% of the company’s stock.

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.