Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Purchased by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 23.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 869 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $602,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Compass Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC now owns 44,733 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,877,000 after purchasing an additional 2,585 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 10,582 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,390,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020 shares in the last quarter. Moseley Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Moseley Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,467,000 after acquiring an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 37.2% during the 1st quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 13,896 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,826,000 after acquiring an additional 3,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Advocates LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $284,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were bought 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 owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $122.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $87.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.43, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.53. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.97. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $87.40 and a twelve month high of $133.56. 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 (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 117.31%.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.