Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target Increased to $177.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

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

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Blackstone from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Blackstone from $145.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Blackstone from $163.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut Blackstone from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $149.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $135.00.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $149.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $107.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.51. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average price is $143.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $131.93. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $161.25.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 125.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Bank & Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.