Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Stock Price

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its target price reduced by Barclays from $186.00 to $129.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $168.50.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $124.37 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $155.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $166.95. Blackstone has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.63%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BX. Bangor Savings Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 187.5% in the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.