Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Raises Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,129 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $717,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at $65,819,775.92. This represents a 5.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,000,005. This trade represents a 24,898.76% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.65.

Blackstone Trading Down 3.1%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $136.37 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $136.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $155.85. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market cap of $99.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.57, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.65.

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 net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.05%.

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.