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.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Blackstone from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Blackstone from $147.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Blackstone from $124.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Blackstone from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $127.00 to $115.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone to $102.00 in a report on Friday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $132.36.
Blackstone Stock Up 0.0 %
Shares of BX Stock traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $108.83. 52,634 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,839,431. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $98.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $111.12. Blackstone has a 12-month low of $86.97 and a 12-month high of $149.78. The stock has a market cap of $76.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.73, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.
Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 21st. The asset manager reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.02. Blackstone had a net margin of 22.48% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $4.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.82 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 96.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Blackstone will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.
Blackstone Cuts Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 8th. Investors of record on Monday, August 1st were issued a $1.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 29th. This represents a $5.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.67%. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 92.70%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, Director James Breyer acquired 9,326 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $107.21 per share, for a total transaction of $999,840.46. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,522 shares in the company, valued at $3,701,103.62. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 64,253 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.21, for a total value of $2,133,842.13. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,161,735 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,581,219.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James Breyer bought 9,326 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 25th. The stock was bought 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 approximately $3,701,103.62. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 205,954 shares of company stock worth $11,578,255 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.
