Boltwood Capital Management Buys 2,588 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Boltwood Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 43.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,489 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,588 shares during the period. Boltwood Capital Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,187,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,637,266,000 after purchasing an additional 444,887 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Blackstone by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,209,707,000 after purchasing an additional 681,512 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,032,400,000 after purchasing an additional 371,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $974,448,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the purchase, the director now owns 37,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This trade represents a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone purchased 1,660,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,005. This trade represents a 24,898.76% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $138.87 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $135.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $158.27. The stock has a market cap of $101.33 billion, a PE ratio of 38.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.65.

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.