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. The real estate segment specializes in opportunistic, core+ investments as well as debt investment opportunities collateralized by commercial real estate, and stabilized income-oriented commercial real estate across North America, Europe and Asia. The firm's corporate private equity business pursues transactions throughout the world across a variety of transaction types, including large buyouts,special situations, distressed mortgage loans, mid-cap buyouts, buy and build platforms, which involves multiple acquisitions behind a single management team and platform, and growth equity/development projects involving significant majority stakes in portfolio companies and minority investments in operating companies, shipping, real estate, corporate or consumer loans, and alternative energy greenfield development projects in energy and power, property, dislocated markets, shipping opportunities, financial institution breakups, re-insurance, and improving freight mobility, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, enterprise tech and consumer, as well as consumer technologies. The fund considers investment in Asia and Latin America. It has a three year investment period. Its hedge fund business manages a broad range of commingled and customized fund solutions and its credit business focuses on loans, and securities of non-investment grade companies spread across the capital structure including senior debt, subordinated debt, preferred stock and common equity. Blackstone Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, New York with additional offices across Asia, Europe and North America.
Blackstone Trading Down 0.1 %
Shares of BX opened at $108.68 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $76.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.83, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. Blackstone has a fifty-two week low of $86.97 and a fifty-two week high of $149.78. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $98.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $111.01.
Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 21st. The asset manager reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 22.48% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 96.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.82 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.
Blackstone Cuts Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 8th. Investors of record on Monday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $1.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 29th. This represents a $5.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.67%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is currently 92.70%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $124.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Blackstone from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $154.00 to $125.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 19th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone to $102.00 in a research report on Friday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $132.36.
Insider Activity at Blackstone
In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 71,223 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.95, for a total transaction of $6,691,400.85. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,141,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,287,611.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director James Breyer acquired 9,326 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $107.21 per share, with a total value of $999,840.46. Following the transaction, the director now owns 34,522 shares in the company, valued at $3,701,103.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 71,223 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.95, for a total transaction of $6,691,400.85. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,141,965 shares in the company, valued at $107,287,611.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 205,954 shares of company stock worth $11,578,255 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.
