BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Stock

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its price target raised by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $134.00 to $157.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the asset manager’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective indicates a potential downside of 8.10% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $188.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Barclays upped their price target on Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.13.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $170.84 on Thursday. Blackstone has a 1-year low of $114.88 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $178.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $151.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $123.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.71, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sather Financial Group Inc grew its holdings in Blackstone by 202.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 6,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $926,000 after acquiring an additional 4,050 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth $201,000. Aljian Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $1,951,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 2,185.4% during the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,901,000 after buying an additional 18,117 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,169,526 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $179,089,000 after acquiring an additional 36,343 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.