Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,423 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $317,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,588,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744,652 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position 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 worth $736,833,000 after purchasing an additional 2,098,150 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,106,889 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $654,292,000 after purchasing an additional 92,112 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,246,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $562,058,000 after purchasing an additional 106,251 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded down $0.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $122.49. 2,962,718 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,161,162. The firm has a market cap of $87.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $125.96 and its 200 day moving average is $118.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $79.92 and a one year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 132.86%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,349,313. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. 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. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.65.

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.