Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Short Interest Update

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 19,650,000 shares, an increase of 14.3% from the October 15th total of 17,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,160,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.2 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on BX. Bank of America boosted their price target on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Blackstone from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $149.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $157.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BX. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $908,797,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after purchasing an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,766,875,000 after acquiring an additional 2,546,886 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 19,048.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,409 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $247,423,000 after buying an additional 1,873,573 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 213.5% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,375,969 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $170,345,000 after purchasing an additional 937,084 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of BX traded up $1.60 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $183.01. The company had a trading volume of 2,078,375 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,411,250. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $161.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $140.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $132.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $104.39 and a 1 year high of $184.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.39 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

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.