Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Hits Estimates

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98, RTT News reports. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $118.40 on Friday. Blackstone has a 52 week low of $79.92 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $126.47 and a 200-day moving average of $117.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $84.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 132.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $510,355,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 96,256.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,790,996 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $429,634,000 after acquiring an additional 5,784,986 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 36.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,647,047 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $477,471,000 after acquiring an additional 973,598 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,244,379,000 after buying an additional 880,745 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Blackstone by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,085,890 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $796,765,000 after buying an additional 839,885 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $118.92.

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.