Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp boosted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.6% in the 4th 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 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 763.0% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 233 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. Family CFO Inc acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity 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 dated Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on BX shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.97.

Blackstone Stock Performance

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

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The business’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

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

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.