Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.83

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. Investors 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 yield of 2.70%.

Blackstone has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Blackstone has a payout ratio of 61.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $123.19 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $88.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.32, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $117.64. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.16. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.07 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. RMB Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. RMB Capital Management LLC now owns 4,531 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $593,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,788 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Empire Financial Management Company LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Empire Financial Management Company LLC now owns 7,187 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $941,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC now owns 5,812 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $761,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,778 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $132,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays upped their target price on Blackstone from $126.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Blackstone in a report on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $118.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Oppenheimer cut Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.92.

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.