St. Louis Trust Co Invests $1.02 Million in Blackstone Inc. $BX

St. Louis Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,621 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,021,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Jain Global LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at $9,116,000. Fayez Sarofim & Co increased its holdings in Blackstone by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 1,270,608 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $217,083,000 after acquiring an additional 24,237 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 840,401 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $143,582,000 after acquiring an additional 142,479 shares during the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd increased its holdings in Blackstone by 16,035.1% in the 3rd quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,140,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $194,746,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 346,318 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $58,337,000 after acquiring an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 24th. Citizens Jmp reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $190.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, January 30th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 20th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $151.05.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $118.58 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $117.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $133.62. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $101.73 and a twelve month high of $190.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $88.09 billion, a PE ratio of 30.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.67% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The firm had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.11 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.67%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Treasury Holdings I. Blackstone purchased 9,486,795 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $20.00 per share, with a total value of $189,735,900.00. Following the purchase, the insider owned 9,111,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $182,236,000. This trade represents a -2,529.85% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total transaction of $15,961,420.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 13,502,092 shares of company stock worth $294,789,896 and sold 9,128,660 shares worth $46,457,920. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.