Sanders Morris Harris LLC Buys 507,530 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Sanders Morris Harris LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2,992.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 524,490 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 507,530 shares during the quarter. Blackstone accounts for approximately 13.5% of Sanders Morris Harris LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Sanders Morris Harris LLC owned 0.07% of Blackstone worth $68,902,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,417,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367,581 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 43.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,877,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $736,833,000 after purchasing an additional 2,098,150 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $708,859,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus upped their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.4 %

Blackstone stock traded down $0.56 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $124.12. 5,209,800 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,518,062. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.10. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $87.40 and a twelve month high of $133.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.70 billion, a PE ratio of 43.86, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. Research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.