Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) Vice Chairman Hamilton E. James sold 280,046 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.73, for a total transaction of $14,486,779.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.
Shares of Blackstone Group stock opened at $51.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.06 billion, a PE ratio of 22.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.47. Blackstone Group LP has a 52-week low of $26.88 and a 52-week high of $55.17. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.08.
Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Blackstone Group had a net margin of 27.05% and a return on equity of 7.61%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Group LP will post 2.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. This is a boost from Blackstone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. Blackstone Group’s payout ratio is presently 86.73%.
Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Group by 127.5% during the second quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,212,003 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $720,137,000 after purchasing an additional 9,085,152 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $234,576,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Group by 2,994.1% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 4,099,714 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $200,230,000 after purchasing an additional 3,967,214 shares during the last quarter. Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Group by 9.3% during the second quarter. Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. now owns 4,071,855 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $180,872,000 after purchasing an additional 346,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Group by 16.4% during the second quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,885,997 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $172,616,000 after purchasing an additional 546,418 shares during the last quarter. 48.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. S&P Equity Research lowered shares of Blackstone Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays set a $53.00 target price on shares of Blackstone Group and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Co began coverage on shares of Blackstone Group in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America lowered shares of Blackstone Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.63.
Blackstone Group Company Profile
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.
Featured Story: What is a good rate of return for a mutual fund?
Receive News & Ratings for Blackstone Group Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Blackstone Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.
