Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Raises Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 401,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,458 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $52,745,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of BX. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its position in Blackstone by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 86,971 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,318,000 after purchasing an additional 12,852 shares in the last quarter. Toroso Investments LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 26.8% in the third quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 9,811 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,051,000 after purchasing an additional 2,072 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 9,847.5% in the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 3,979 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $425,000 after purchasing an additional 3,939 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 6.0% in the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 5,662 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $607,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 206,503 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $22,125,000 after buying an additional 3,505 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. TD Cowen decreased their price target 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 decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $143.00 to $134.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $122.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at $113,305,632. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $2.00 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $123.28. The company had a trading volume of 704,069 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,421,888. The company has a market cap of $88.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $122.45 and its 200-day moving average is $124.24. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.59 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 117.31%.

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.