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Valued at a market cap of $125.4 billion, Blackstone Inc. (BX) is an alternative asset management company that specializes in private equity, real estate, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity, and multi-asset class strategies. The New York-based company typically invests in early-stage, seed, middle market, mature, late venture and later-stage companies and also provides capital markets services. It is expected to announce its fiscal Q4 earnings results on Thursday, Jan. 23.
Ahead of this event, analysts project the financial sector giant to report a profit of $1.48 per share, up 33.3% from $1.11 per share in the year-ago quarter. The company has met or outpaced Wall Street's earnings estimates in three of the last four quarters while missing on another occasion. In Q3, BX’s adjusted EPS of $1.01 outpaced the consensus estimates by a notable margin of 11%.
For fiscal 2024, analysts expect BX to report an EPS of $4.43 up 12.2% from $3.95 in fiscal 2023. Moreover, in fiscal 2025, EPS is expected to grow 33.2% year-over-year to $5.90.
Shares of Blackstone have rallied 35.5% over the past 52 weeks, outpacing both the S&P 500 Index's ($SPX) 23.7% rise and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLF) 27.7% return over the same time frame.
On Oct. 17, shares of BX surged 6.3% after delivering better-than-expected Q3 adjusted earnings of $1.01 per share, which increased 7.4% annually, and adjusted revenues of $2.4 billion, which climbed 4.7% from the year-ago quarter. A 12% year-over-year jump in BX’s fee-earning Asset Under Management (AUM) to $820.5 billion and a 10% annual growth in its total AUM to a record $1.1 trillion led to its strong performance. Moreover, the company experienced $41 billion of inflows during the quarter and deployed and committed $54 billion of capital, the highest in over two years. This might have further bolstered investor confidence.
Wall Street analysts are moderately optimistic about Blackstone’s stock, with a "Moderate Buy" rating overall. Among 22 analysts covering the stock, six recommend "Strong Buy," one suggests a "Moderate Buy," 14 indicate “Hold,” and one recommends a “Strong Sell” rating. This configuration is slightly less bullish than three months ago, with seven analysts suggesting a "Strong Buy."
The mean price target for BX is $177.85, which indicates a slight 2.4% potential upside from the current levels.
