Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Given Consensus Rating of "Hold" by Analysts

Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the eighteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $123.65.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $6,652,526,000 after acquiring an additional 14,396,655 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $708,859,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 13,816.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,623,868 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,744,370,000 after purchasing an additional 3,597,828 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Blackstone by 7.5% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,766,875,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546,886 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $290,514,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Blackstone stock traded down $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $123.80. 4,058,890 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,587,450. The company has a 50 day moving average of $122.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $124.50. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $88.59 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market cap of $88.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. Blackstone's revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.68%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

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.