Ruth Porat Purchases 219 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Stock

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Ruth Porat also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, February 12th, Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of Blackstone stock. The shares were acquired at an average price of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.7 %

NYSE:BX opened at $123.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $87.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $124.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $119.45. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $80.28 and a 52 week high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its 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 analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 117.31%.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stonegate Investment Group LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% in the first quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 20,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,649,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $855,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 303,069 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $40,348,000 after purchasing an additional 15,875 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $3,734,000. Finally, Kampmann Melissa S. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth $2,314,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer cut Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 target price (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

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.