Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN Purchases 180 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 11.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,708 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $239,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $316,257,000. Capital Research Global Investors purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $239,837,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was acquired 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This represents a 0.64% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $144.02 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $137.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $153.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $105.09 billion, a PE ratio of 43.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results 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). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 112.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.65.

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.