Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the nineteen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $157.63.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, October 18th.

Blackstone Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $193.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $166.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $143.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $139.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.36, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone has a 52-week low of $105.51 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.86 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the sale, the insider now owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BX. Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 31,635 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,844,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,501,000. World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.8% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 69,523 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,646,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 366,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $56,130,000 after purchasing an additional 44,226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.5% during the third quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 25,865 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,961,000 after buying an additional 624 shares in the last quarter. 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.