Diversified Trust Co Acquires 2,456 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Diversified Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 29.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,724 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,456 shares during the quarter. Diversified Trust Co’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Blackstone by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,417,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367,581 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position 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 purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $708,859,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Blackstone by 2.1% in 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 during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $125.00 price objective (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Blackstone stock traded down $1.99 on Monday, reaching $121.81. The company had a trading volume of 1,283,219 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,473,272. The firm has a market cap of $87.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.75, 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 current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $122.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $124.53. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Blackstone 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.