Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Upgraded by BMO Capital Markets to “Strong-Buy” Rating

BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Blackstone (NYSE:BX) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

BX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. JMP Securities upped their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.00.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $168.40 on Thursday. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $173.81 and its 200 day moving average is $153.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $124.12 billion, a PE ratio of 45.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,394,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,494,796 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Blackstone

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.