Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.83

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.83 per share by the asset manager on Monday, May 6th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%.

Blackstone has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Blackstone has a payout ratio of 61.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Blackstone to earn $6.15 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 61.1%.

Blackstone Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE:BX opened at $120.28 on Friday. Blackstone has a one year low of $79.92 and a one year high of $133.56. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.73, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.02). Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on BX shares. TheStreet lowered shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. TD Cowen began coverage on Blackstone in a report on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $118.00 price target on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on Blackstone from $126.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $119.97.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Blackstone by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after buying an additional 332,962 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 7.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $695,952,000 after acquiring an additional 522,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $510,355,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.