Greenwood Capital Associates LLC Has $1.45 Million Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Greenwood Capital Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,102 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,060 shares during the quarter. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,417,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367,581 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted 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 last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $841,783,000 after buying an additional 322,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $708,859,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BX. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock traded down $0.96 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $121.25. 1,685,481 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,907,827. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $122.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $86.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.53. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $87.40 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

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.