O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc Raises Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 65,886 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,481 shares during the quarter. Blackstone comprises 5.0% of O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $8,655,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mather Group LLC. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $931,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% during the first quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 3,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $428,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 3,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $435,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FFT Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $667,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3 %

BX stock traded down $1.57 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $122.23. 3,330,446 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,491,555. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $88.59 and a 52-week high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The business has a 50 day moving average of $122.37 and a 200-day moving average of $124.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Argus boosted their price target on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. UBS Group upped 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.