Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Boosts Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 36.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 36,215 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,699 shares during the period. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 914.4% during the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 21,697 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,325,000 after purchasing an additional 19,558 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth $610,000. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC now owns 9,949 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,066,000 after buying an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 15,059 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,613,000 after acquiring an additional 1,583 shares during the period. Finally, Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% in the third quarter. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 6,326 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $678,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Argus increased their price objective on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen dropped their price target 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped 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. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE BX traded up $0.53 during trading on Friday, reaching $123.64. 1,815,353 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,463,357. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $81.94 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The stock has a market cap of $88.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $124.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.03.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were bought at an average price 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.