The Goldman Sachs Group Raises Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target to $173.00

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price objective raised by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $172.00 to $173.00 in a research note issued on Friday,MarketScreener reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the asset manager’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 2.73% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on BX. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $175.53.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $168.40 on Friday. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $173.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $153.80.

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

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at about $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 22.1% during the second quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after buying an additional 2,182 shares during the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 14.5% during the first quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 14,708 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,056,000 after purchasing an additional 1,863 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 34.3% during the first quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 16,486 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.