Schwab Charitable Fund Has $253,000 Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Schwab Charitable Fund cut its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 19.8% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,925 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 475 shares during the quarter. Schwab Charitable Fund’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bay Rivers Group lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.4% during the first quarter. Bay Rivers Group now owns 19,853 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,608,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,556 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $599,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $931,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 3,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $428,000 after buying an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearwater Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.3% during the first quarter. Clearwater Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,210 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus increased their price objective on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $127.56.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, insider Joseph Baratta 4,987 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX traded down $3.98 during trading on Friday, reaching $133.05. 4,695,832 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,029,145. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.59 and a fifty-two week high of $145.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.00, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $127.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $125.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.90%.

Blackstone Company 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.