Morgan Stanley Boosts Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target to $177.00

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its target price boosted by Morgan Stanley from $164.00 to $177.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Blackstone from $163.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Blackstone from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays raised their target price on Blackstone from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday. TD Cowen raised their target price on Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic started coverage on Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a neutral rating and a $134.00 target price for the company. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $135.00.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $149.07 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $107.34 billion, a PE ratio of 56.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 12 month low of $88.59 and a 12 month high of $161.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $143.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $131.93.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.93 earnings per share. Blackstone’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.46 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 125.19%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the transaction, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the transaction, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total value of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at $56,567,311.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,442,227,000 after acquiring an additional 1,290,324 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,766,875,000 after buying an additional 2,546,886 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the second 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 during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the second 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 during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,670,645 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $613,581,000 after buying an additional 21,450 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by 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.