Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Purchased by Motco

Motco increased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 60,370 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,702 shares during the period. Motco’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,479,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 46,339,020 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,878,576,000 after acquiring an additional 581,545 shares during the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 48.7% in the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 10,915,509 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $913,628,000 after purchasing an additional 3,574,211 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 7,221,107 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $604,405,000 after purchasing an additional 66,646 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 11.5% in the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,055,461 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $506,842,000 after purchasing an additional 623,131 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 8.6% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,041,373 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $639,952,000 after purchasing an additional 401,063 shares during the period. 62.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 85,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.32, for a total transaction of $7,337,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,145,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $98,875,071.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 85,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.32, for a total value of $7,337,200.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,145,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $98,875,071.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III purchased 27,082 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 29th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $47.11 per share, for a total transaction of $1,275,833.02. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 18,535 shares in the company, valued at approximately $873,183.85. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 10,950,343 shares of company stock valued at $18,741,735 and have sold 140,632,216 shares valued at $1,725,831,950. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:BX traded up $1.66 during trading on Friday, hitting $85.19. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 920,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,683,063. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.72 and a fifty-two week high of $123.18. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $84.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.18. The company has a market capitalization of $60.15 billion, a PE ratio of 101.87, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 20th. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.97. Blackstone had a return on equity of 18.51% and a net margin of 12.92%. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 73.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.3 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 1st were issued a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 400.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $98.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 21st. TheStreet downgraded Blackstone from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 9th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Blackstone from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 27th. Credit Suisse Group lowered their price target on Blackstone from $74.00 to $70.50 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $102.70.

Blackstone 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.