Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target Raised to $177.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price target upped by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $160.00 to $177.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. TD Cowen cut their target price on Blackstone from $215.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. JMP Securities raised their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.33.

Blackstone Stock Up 3.7%

BX stock opened at $164.04 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $120.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.10, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $172.22 and a 200-day moving average of $154.49.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%. As a group, equities research analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,394,670,000 after buying an additional 1,494,796 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.