Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas’ 3rd Largest Position

Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas lifted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 77,729 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,556 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up about 2.8% of Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas’ holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $10,176,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after buying an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 13.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,588,433,000 after buying an additional 1,744,652 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 43.9% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,877,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $736,833,000 after buying an additional 2,098,150 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.5% during the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,106,889 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $654,292,000 after purchasing an additional 92,112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Blackstone by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,246,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $562,058,000 after purchasing an additional 106,251 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 target price (down from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer cut Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.94.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX traded down $1.49 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $122.82. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 747,212 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,679,247. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $126.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.20. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The company has a market cap of $87.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.89, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.8 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 132.86%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,349,313. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,349,313. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.