Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Stock

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $139.00 to $153.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "equal weight" rating on the asset manager's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's target price indicates a potential upside of 10.53% from the company's previous close.

BX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $155.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX traded down $0.88 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $138.42. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,209,733 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,786,646. The business's 50-day moving average is $136.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $159.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $101.00 billion, a PE ratio of 38.13, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. Blackstone has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 237 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares in the company, valued at $5,053,344.11. This represents a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. This trade represents a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $63,109,000. Wealthcare Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,102,000. Highland Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 214.2% during the 4th quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 22,303 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,845,000 after buying an additional 15,205 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after buying an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 716,319 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $123,508,000 after acquiring an additional 5,951 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently 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.