Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Purchases 13,360 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 17.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 89,072 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,360 shares during the period. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $11,701,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,652,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $708,859,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 13,816.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,623,868 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,744,370,000 after purchasing an additional 3,597,828 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $290,514,000. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,417,140,000 after acquiring an additional 1,367,581 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $0.04 on Thursday, reaching $124.20. The stock had a trading volume of 2,079,707 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,486,281. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $122.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $124.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 117.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on BX. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Argus raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.