Greenleaf Trust Purchases 742 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 31.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,088 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 742 shares during the quarter. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $404,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 763.0% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 233 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Family CFO Inc bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth about $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $124.22 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $88.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $126.30 and a 200 day moving average of $118.20. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, 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. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on BX. Bank of America cut their target price on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.94.

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.