Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 19.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,237 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,366 shares during the quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,990,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $1,231,000. Allstate Corp raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 36.0% during the first quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 29,055 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,061,000 after purchasing an additional 7,691 shares in the last quarter. Compound Planning Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 18,283 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,556,000 after buying an additional 1,382 shares in the last quarter. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc increased its stake in Blackstone by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc now owns 63,382 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,860,000 after buying an additional 3,992 shares during the period. Finally, Norinchukin Bank The lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Norinchukin Bank The now owns 38,080 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,323,000 after acquiring an additional 5,408 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 222 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $170.29 per share, for a total transaction of $37,804.38. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 38,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,599,248.37. This trade represents a 0.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 4.2%

Shares of BX opened at $170.2430 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $125.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.71. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $161.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $149.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on BX. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $170.12.

Blackstone Company 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.