Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Buys Shares of 20,989 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 20,989 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $2,934,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 11,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,970,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 8,110 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,398,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Global Assets Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 4,013 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $697,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America reduced their price target 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. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This trade represents a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $15.00 per share, for a total transaction of $24,900,000.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,005. This trade represents a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $137.45 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $100.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.40, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $137.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.86.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

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

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.