CCG Wealth Management LLC Invests $249,000 in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

CCG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,894 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in Blackstone by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,417,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367,581 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $708,859,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Blackstone by 2.1% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,246,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $562,058,000 after purchasing an additional 106,251 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX traded down $1.57 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $122.23. The stock had a trading volume of 3,568,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,491,555. The company’s fifty day moving average is $122.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $88.59 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.