Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Acquires 1,576 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 402,948 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,576 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $69,476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bangor Savings Bank grew its stake in Blackstone by 187.5% in the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $160.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Citizens Jmp raised Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price 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. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.72.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $130.26 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $145.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $164.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced 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). Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a $0.93 dividend. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.86%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

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.