Wells Fargo & Company Downgrades Blackstone (NYSE:BX) to Equal Weight

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $195.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock, up from their prior target price of $188.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 3.51% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler downgraded Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $164.69.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $188.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $136.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.39, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. Blackstone has a 1 year low of $114.88 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $175.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $148.70.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. Analysts predict that Blackstone will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,597,028,000 after buying an additional 348,751 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after acquiring an additional 336,308 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $775,758,000 after purchasing an additional 141,616 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.