Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Given New $160.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) had its target price lowered by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $180.00 to $160.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 7.58% from the company’s current price.

BX has been the subject of several other reports. Citigroup reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Cowen raised Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.13.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.7 %

BX stock traded down $1.00 during trading on Thursday, reaching $148.72. 1,979,523 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,259,265. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $164.36 and its 200 day moving average is $167.16. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $115.82 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $108.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $316,257,000. Capital Research Global Investors purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $239,837,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 38.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,990,238 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $515,577,000 after buying an additional 835,170 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.