Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target Raised to $179.00

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its target price boosted by Piper Sandler from $168.00 to $179.00 in a report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a neutral rating on the asset manager’s stock.

BX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.00.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.0 %

BX stock opened at $175.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $126.85 billion, a PE ratio of 60.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone has a 52 week low of $114.88 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $179.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $152.36.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 118.21%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BX. Lantz Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 2,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 81.0% in the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 96,180 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,907,000 after acquiring an additional 43,028 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 104.8% during the 2nd quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,170 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $392,000 after acquiring an additional 1,622 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 7,594 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $940,000 after purchasing an additional 470 shares during the period. Finally, Checchi Capital Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 5.9% during the second quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,651 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $576,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.