Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Short Interest Update

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,000,000 shares, a drop of 13.5% from the October 31st total of 19,650,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,230,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.3 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup increased their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler downgraded Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE BX traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $186.86. The company had a trading volume of 354,233 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,398,277. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $134.91 billion, a PE ratio of 64.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $169.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $145.09. Blackstone has a 1-year low of $111.05 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. On average, analysts predict that Blackstone will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a $0.86 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after acquiring an additional 7,281,128 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Blackstone by 213.5% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,375,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $170,345,000 after acquiring an additional 937,084 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Blackstone by 468.4% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,107,547 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $137,114,000 after acquiring an additional 912,685 shares during the period. Finally, Castleark Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $67,472,000. 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.