Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. Purchases 1,332 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 25,953 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,332 shares during the period. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,628,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $316,257,000. Capital Research Global Investors purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $239,837,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.3% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone purchased 1,660,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,005. The trade was 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.

Blackstone Trading Down 3.1%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $136.37 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $136.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $155.85. 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 firm has a market capitalization 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.65.

Blackstone 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.