Carret Asset Management LLC Purchases 8,050 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Carret Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 20.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,645 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,050 shares during the quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $6,128,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 880,745 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,367,581 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings 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. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $708,859,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 106,251 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective 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 boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $123.40. 2,097,862 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,471,143. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.59 and a 12 month high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $88.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.69, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $122.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.45.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 117.31%.

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.