Barclays Raises Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Price Target to $126.00

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price objective raised by Barclays from $125.00 to $126.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 1.42% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group raised their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $143.00 to $134.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.00.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX opened at $124.24 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $122.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.24. The company has a market cap of $88.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.90, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at $113,305,632. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,442,227,000 after acquiring an additional 1,290,324 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in Blackstone by 7.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,766,875,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546,886 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $708,859,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 0.5% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,670,645 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $613,581,000 after acquiring an additional 21,450 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.