Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Stake Lifted by First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 32.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 11,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 2,858 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,548,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% in the 4th quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Advantage Trust Co bought a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 763.0% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 233 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.2 %

Blackstone stock traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $123.40. The company had a trading volume of 2,102,519 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,597,676. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $122.35 and its 200-day moving average is $124.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.50. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.59 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. 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 (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BX. Bank of America lowered their target price on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 target price (down from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, April 19th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone 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.