Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp Purchases 140 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,211 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 140 shares during the quarter. Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $420,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BX. WASHINGTON TRUST Co increased its stake in Blackstone by 7.0% in the third quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 121,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,002,000 after purchasing an additional 7,907 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 303,069 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,348,000 after buying an additional 15,875 shares during the period. Chicago Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $3,734,000. Kampmann Melissa S. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter valued at $2,314,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1,722.9% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 504,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $54,046,000 after buying an additional 476,768 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BX shares. TheStreet lowered Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group raised their price target on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $119.97.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX traded down $2.91 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $120.28. 5,701,696 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,722,024. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $79.92 and a 12-month high of $133.56. The company has a market cap of $85.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $126.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.64.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.02). Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.76%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 205.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.