State of Alaska Department of Revenue Raises Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 78,055 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,320 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $10,254,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 6,500.0% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,828 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $410,000 after purchasing an additional 3,770 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 11,512 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,233,000 after acquiring an additional 1,661 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth $573,000. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 10.6% during the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 288,436 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,903,000 after purchasing an additional 27,534 shares during the period. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $75,609,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $123.40 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $88.59 and a 52-week high of $133.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.60, a PEG ratio of 1.03 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. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.45.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 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 analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 117.31%.

Insider Activity

In related 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Argus upped their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price objective (down from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.