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 Price Performance
Blackstone stock opened at $106.50 on Thursday. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $98.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $110.95. The firm has a market cap of $74.73 billion, a PE ratio of 19.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Blackstone has a one year low of $86.97 and a one year high of $149.78.
Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 21st. The asset manager reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.46 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 22.48% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 96.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Blackstone Cuts Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 8th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.77%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.70%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Bank of America boosted their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report 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. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $124.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $136.00 to $112.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of Blackstone from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $127.00 to $115.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $132.36.
Insider Activity
In other news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 4,236 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.11, for a total transaction of $424,065.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,311,663 shares of the company's stock, valued at $131,310,582.93. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 4,236 shares of Blackstone 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 transaction, the insider now owns 1,311,663 shares in the company, valued at $131,310,582.93. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 71,223 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.95, for a total value of $6,691,400.85. Following the completion of the sale, the director now 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 205,954 shares of company stock worth $11,578,255. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.
