Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Rating Increased to Buy at TD Cowen

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) was upgraded by analysts at TD Cowen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $230.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $149.00. TD Cowen’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 21.33% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on BX. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $164.25.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE BX opened at $189.56 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $136.86 billion, a PE ratio of 65.14, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $112.09 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The business’s 50-day moving average is $173.07 and its 200 day moving average is $147.64.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’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 directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after purchasing an additional 348,751 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,272,227,000 after buying an additional 336,308 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after buying an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $775,758,000 after buying an additional 141,616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.