State of Michigan Retirement System Raises Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 197,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 2,600 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $25,893,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its holdings in Blackstone by 36.6% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 36,215 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,741,000 after purchasing an additional 9,699 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 367,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $48,158,000 after acquiring an additional 28,856 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 254,099 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $33,267,000 after acquiring an additional 20,830 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $855,000. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 15,875 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.8 %

BX opened at $123.20 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $122.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $124.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $88.59 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The company has a market cap of $88.04 billion, a PE ratio of 43.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

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.