Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Boosts Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 55,949 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 474 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $6,826,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mather Group LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $931,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 3,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $428,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 3,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $435,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Marino Stram & Associates LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $339,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, FFT Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on BX. Barclays reissued 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. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target 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. 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE:BX traded down $1.07 on Friday, reaching $122.33. 130,877 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,445,083. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.43. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.59 and a 12 month high of $133.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $87.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.60, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 117.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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.