BNP Paribas Exane Issues Positive Forecast for Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Stock Price

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price target upped by BNP Paribas Exane from $166.00 to $178.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,MarketScreener reports. BNP Paribas Exane currently has a neutral rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays lifted their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.71.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.4%

BX opened at $175.99 on Monday. Blackstone has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $153.26. The firm has a market cap of $129.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. This represents a 4.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 348,572 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $52,139,000 after buying an additional 21,360 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $180,000. Caldwell Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $6,862,000. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.5% during the second quarter. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC now owns 3,699 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $553,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canal Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.6% during the second quarter. Canal Capital Management LLC now owns 89,271 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,353,000 after purchasing an additional 3,907 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is 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.