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.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
BX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $147.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 13th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $154.00 to $120.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $136.00 to $112.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 29th. Bank of America increased their price target 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, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $124.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $131.82.
Blackstone Stock Performance
Shares of BX Stock opened at $106.01 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $99.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $111.21. Blackstone has a 52 week low of $86.97 and a 52 week high of $149.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a market cap of $74.38 billion, a PE ratio of 19.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.44.
Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 21st. The asset manager reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 96.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 5.16 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $1.27 per share. This represents a $5.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.79%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 29th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.70%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 71,223 shares of Blackstone 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 sale, the director now owns 1,141,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $107,287,611.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 4,236 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.11, for a total transaction of $424,065.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,311,663 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $131,310,582.93. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 71,223 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 27th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $107,287,611.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 205,954 shares of company stock valued at $11,578,255 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.
