Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Short Interest Update

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,490,000 shares, a drop of 9.9% from the June 30th total of 19,410,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.2 days.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, insider Joseph Baratta 4,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Joseph Baratta 4,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BX. Equitable Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% in the second quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 3,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% in the second quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 185,812 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $23,004,000 after purchasing an additional 940 shares during the period. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.6% in the second quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 4,020 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $498,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.2% in the second quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 9,270 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 3.2% during the second quarter. Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. now owns 39,686 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,913,000 after purchasing an additional 1,249 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus upped their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America upped their price target on Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $127.56.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX stock traded down $4.26 on Thursday, hitting $137.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,652,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,530,812. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Blackstone has a 12-month low of $88.59 and a 12-month high of $145.16. The stock has a market cap of $98.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.50. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $125.47.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be given a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.90%.

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.