Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 274 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,350 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 274 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 11,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,970,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 8,110 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,398,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 8,522 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,469,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 4,013 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $697,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,466 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,460,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. This trade represents a 5.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday, April 21st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.65.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $137.28 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.65. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $137.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $154.42.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 19.84%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.05%.

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.