Blackstone Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:BX)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 26th, 2023

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 52,615 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 37% compared to the average daily volume of 38,384 put options.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.5 %

BX stock opened at $86.43 on Wednesday. Blackstone has a 52-week low of $71.72 and a 52-week high of $123.18. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 106.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 20th. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.97. The firm had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.44 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 18.08%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 73.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 1st will be paid a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 28th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.79%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 443.91%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 180,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.63, for a total value of $5,513,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,812,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,934,440.61. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 180,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.63, for a total value of $5,513,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,812,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,934,440.61. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $92.61 per share, with a total value of $25,652.97. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 30,851 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,857,111.11. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 10,950,338 shares of company stock valued at $18,744,064 and sold 140,962,716 shares valued at $1,744,783,150. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth approximately $510,355,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 96,256.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,790,996 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $429,634,000 after buying an additional 5,784,986 shares during the period. Cottage Street Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6,039.5% during the 4th quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 4,231,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $880,000 after buying an additional 4,162,438 shares during the period. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 48.7% during the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 10,915,509 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $913,628,000 after buying an additional 3,574,211 shares during the period. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 185.2% during the 3rd quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 1,353,170 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $113,260,000 after buying an additional 878,676 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $111.00 to $107.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $104.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $103.04.

Blackstone Company Profile

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Blackstone, Inc engages in the provision of investment and fund management services. It operates through the following segments: Real Estate, Private Equity, Credit and Insurance, and Hedge Fund Solutions. The Real Estate segment includes management of opportunistic real estate funds, Core+ real estate funds, high-yield real estate debt funds, and liquid real estate debt funds.