Blackstone Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.93 (NYSE:BX)

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be given a dividend of 0.93 per share by the asset manager on Monday, May 5th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 28th.

Blackstone has decreased its dividend by an average of 1.1% annually over the last three years. Blackstone has a dividend payout ratio of 84.7% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company's earnings decline. Equities analysts expect Blackstone to earn $7.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 80.7%.

Blackstone Trading Up 3.9 %

NYSE:BX traded up $4.67 on Tuesday, reaching $124.89. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,070,735 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,727,524. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $144.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $164.73. Blackstone has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $91.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Blackstone stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 34.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 2,035 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,365,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on BX. Barclays boosted their target price on Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Blackstone from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $153.72.

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.