Roble Belko & Company Inc Buys Shares of 229 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 229 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $30,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WASHINGTON TRUST Co boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 7.0% in the third quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 121,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,002,000 after purchasing an additional 7,907 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 303,069 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $40,348,000 after acquiring an additional 15,875 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $3,734,000. Kampmann Melissa S. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $2,314,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1,722.9% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 504,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $54,046,000 after acquiring an additional 476,768 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of BX traded up $2.97 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $125.06. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,381,110 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,691,279. The company’s 50-day moving average is $126.31 and its 200-day moving average is $118.06. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $79.92 and a 52-week high of $133.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.14, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.86%.

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.