Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target Cut to $170.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price target reduced by Citigroup from $185.00 to $170.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on BX. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Blackstone from $194.00 to $188.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.06.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of BX stock opened at $158.13 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $172.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $154.42. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $116.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 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 owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Traub Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $27,000. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Family CFO Inc acquired a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently 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.