UPDATE: BMO Capital Markets Reiterates Outperform Rating, Raises PT on Blackstone Group

In a report published Friday, BMO Capital Markets reiterated its Outperform rating on Blackstone Group

, and raised its price target from $17.00 to $19.00. BMO Capital Markets noted, “We believe Blackstone is a leader in each of its business segments, including corporate private equity, real estate, hedge fund of funds, credit, and financial advisory. We believe Blackstone has a proven ability to attract AUM from institutional investors and it is one of the best-positioned alternative managers to attract additional asset flows given its strong performance and diversified product offering. Blackstone completed fundraising for the largest global real estate opportunity fund ever raised at $13.3B in 3Q12, and Blackstone's managed funds have plenty of dry powder to invest ($36B), putting it in prime position to acquire attractively priced assets. We expect its hedge fund solutions business to continue gathering assets at an impressive clip, as we model $5B of net inflows in 2013. We believe Blackstone's significant amount of on-balance sheet cash/investments ($4.3B) is a competitive advantage and enables it to seed new products and directly benefit from capital appreciation. BX is the largest alternative manager with $205B AUM, up 30% y/y on $38B organic flows.” Blackstone Group closed on Thursday at $16.88.