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 Stock Up 2.6 %
Shares of NYSE:BX traded up $2.78 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $108.79. The company had a trading volume of 2,522,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,839,354. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $98.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $111.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.85, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.44. Blackstone has a one year low of $86.97 and a one year high of $149.78.
Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 21st. The asset manager reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.02. The business 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 revenue was up 96.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.82 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Blackstone Cuts Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $1.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 29th. This represents a $5.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.67%. Blackstone's payout ratio is 92.70%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone to $102.00 in a research report on Friday, July 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $147.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of Blackstone from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $132.36.
Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone
In other Blackstone news, 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,141,965 shares in the company, valued at $107,287,611.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,141,965 shares in the company, valued at $107,287,611.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director James Breyer bought 9,326 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $107.21 per share, with a total value of $999,840.46. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,522 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.
