Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Purchased by First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 32.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,858 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,548,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BX. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 6,500.0% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,828 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 3,770 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 11,512 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,233,000 after buying an additional 1,661 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 7,201 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $772,000 after buying an additional 441 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Blackstone by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 86,971 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,318,000 after acquiring an additional 12,852 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rainsberger Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.4% during the third quarter. Rainsberger Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 10,864 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,164,000 after purchasing an additional 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 stock was purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen lowered their target price 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. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX traded up $0.19 during trading on Thursday, hitting $123.40. 2,102,519 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,597,676. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $122.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.44. The company has a market cap of $88.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.60, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.