Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Has $1.99 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 19.9% during the first quarter, acquiring an additional 2,366 shares, now totaling 14,237 shares worth approximately $1.99 million.
• Blackstone recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, an increase from the previous dividend of $0.93, resulting in an annualized dividend of $4.12 and a yield of 2.4%.
• Analysts have a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" for Blackstone shares, with a current target price averaging $170.12, indicating potential for growth in the stock.

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 19.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,237 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 2,366 shares during the quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,990,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,874,000 after purchasing an additional 6,878 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $63,109,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,363,000 after buying an additional 1,943 shares in the last quarter. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,747,000. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management increased its stake in Blackstone by 34.3% in the first quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,032,000 after acquiring an additional 16,486 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total value of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $0.31 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $171.74. The company had a trading volume of 2,050,969 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,226,161. The firm has a market cap of $126.59 billion, a PE ratio of 46.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $163.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $149.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

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.