First Manhattan CO. LLC. Buys 871 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. raised its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 34,130 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 871 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,885,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $63,109,000. Wealthcare Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $2,102,000. Highland Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 214.2% during the fourth quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 22,303 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,845,000 after acquiring an additional 15,205 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 909,698 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $139,302,000 after purchasing an additional 51,897 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $15.00 per share, for a total transaction of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,005. The trade was a 24,898.76 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 1,660,538 shares of company stock valued at $24,981,930 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $139.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $136.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $162.27.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.67%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on BX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $154.82.

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.