Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. Takes Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,039 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Greenleaf Trust bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $251,000. Navellier & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter worth about $214,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 114.6% in the third quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 3,745 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its holdings in Blackstone by 24.1% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,061 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in Blackstone by 12.1% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 158,266 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,007,000 after purchasing an additional 17,067 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was 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 available through this link. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $121.22. The company had a trading volume of 1,685,365 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,553,219. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $87.40 and a 12-month high of $133.56. The company’s fifty day moving average is $122.46 and its 200-day moving average is $123.65. The company has a market capitalization of $86.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.74%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 117.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price objective (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently 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.