Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 13th, there was short interest totalling 18,140,000 shares, a decline of 20.8% from the November 28th total of 22,900,000 shares. Currently, 2.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 5,230,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.
In related news, major shareholder Clarus Gp L.P. Blackstone acquired 250,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $12.00 per share, for a total transaction of $3,000,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Blackstone Group Inc sold 8,875,211 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.50, for a total transaction of $22,188,027.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 16,608,103 shares of company stock valued at $311,151,291. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Burt Wealth Advisors purchased a new position in Blackstone Group during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Cypress Capital Management LLC WY purchased a new position in Blackstone Group during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Lenox Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone Group during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone Group during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone Group during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.38% of the company’s stock.
Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Blackstone Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Bank of America downgraded shares of Blackstone Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. S&P Equity Research downgraded shares of Blackstone Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Blackstone Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Deutsche Bank upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone Group from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Blackstone Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.13.
Shares of BX traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $56.14. 1,731,548 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,109,553. Blackstone Group has a fifty-two week low of $28.51 and a fifty-two week high of $56.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.44. The business’s 50 day moving average is $53.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82.
Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Blackstone Group had a net margin of 27.05% and a return on equity of 7.61%. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Group will post 2.28 earnings per share for the current year.
About Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group L.P. is a publicly owned alternative asset manager. The firm also provides capital markets services to its clients. It provides its services to public and corporate pension funds, academic, cultural, and charitable organizations, retirees, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional and individual investors.
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