Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Bought by Compass Ion Advisors LLC

Compass Ion Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 25,431 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Blackstone by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,417,140,000 after buying an additional 1,367,581 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $841,783,000 after acquiring an additional 322,860 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $708,859,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Blackstone by 2.1% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,246,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $562,058,000 after purchasing an additional 106,251 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $125.00 price objective (down from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $123.80 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.59 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $122.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $124.53. The stock has a market cap of $88.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.