Blackstone Acquires QTS Realty Trust for $10B

Alternative investment management company Blackstone, Inc. (BX) recently announced that the affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Inc., and Blackstone Property Partners have completed the acquisition of QTS Realty Trust for roughly $10 billion, including debt. Further, QTS’ common stock, Series A preferred stock and Series B preferred stock will no longer be listed on any public market.

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Following the news, shares of the company gained 1.1% on Tuesday. It added to its gains slightly to close at $126 in extended trade.

The Senior Managing Directors at Blackstone, Greg Blank and Tyler Henritze, said “We are thrilled to complete this transaction and are excited about the future of QTS. QTS aligns with one of Blackstone’s highest conviction themes – data proliferation – and the required investment makes it well suited as a long-term holding for our perpetual capital vehicles. We look forward to working with QTS and its world-class management team to further scale the business to meet the rising demand for data centers.” (See Blackstone stock chart on TipRanks)

Recently, Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Bedell upgraded the stock to a Buy. The analyst further raised the price target to $135 from $103, which implies upside potential of 7.4% from current levels.

Consensus among analysts is a Strong Buy based on 6 Buys and 2 Holds. The average Blackstone price target of $116.07 implies downside potential of 7.7% from current levels.

Blackstone scores a “Perfect 10” from TipRanks’ Smart Score rating system, indicating that the stock has strong potential to outperform market expectations. Shares have gained 134.1% over the past year.