Cullinan Associates Inc. Acquires 2,400 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Cullinan Associates Inc. increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 10.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 26,442 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,400 shares during the quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,474,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,244,379,000 after buying an additional 880,745 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,417,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367,581 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $708,859,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,246,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $562,058,000 after acquiring an additional 106,251 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $121.93. 576,853 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,468,423. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $88.59 and a one year high of $133.56. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $122.37 and a 200 day moving average of $124.53. The company has a market cap of $87.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 117.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price target (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

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.