Roble Belko & Company Inc Acquires Shares of 229 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 229 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $30,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. WASHINGTON TRUST Co boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 121,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,002,000 after buying an additional 7,907 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $40,348,000 after purchasing an additional 15,875 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,734,000. Kampmann Melissa S. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,314,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Blackstone by 1,722.9% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 504,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $54,046,000 after purchasing an additional 476,768 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on BX shares. Citigroup lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.94.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.4 %

NYSE BX traded up $2.97 on Tuesday, hitting $125.06. 1,381,110 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,691,279. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $126.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $118.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 132.86%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.