Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Position Boosted by Appleton Partners Inc. MA

Appleton Partners Inc. MA lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 16.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 98,837 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,609 shares during the period. Blackstone accounts for approximately 1.0% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $12,984,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $2,185,000. M3 Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $488,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 77,303 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,121,000 after acquiring an additional 559 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, Leo Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $755,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on BX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Argus boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock traded up $0.52 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $122.68. The company had a trading volume of 454,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,511,383. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.53. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $122.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $123.92. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $87.40 and a one year high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. Blackstone’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

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.