1,180 Shares in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Bought by Israel Discount Bank of New York

Israel Discount Bank of New York bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,180 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,151,000. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management lifted its position in Blackstone by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management now owns 74,415 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,831,000 after purchasing an additional 2,538 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 12,576 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183 shares during the last quarter. Wills Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Wills Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,227 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $729,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 31.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,711 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $303,000 after buying an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.3 %

BX stock opened at $132.80 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a 50-day moving average of $141.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $164.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 112.05%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $160.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.82.

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.