William Blair Investment Management LLC Buys 45,385 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3,176.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 46,814 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 45,385 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $7,216,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,827,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,100,868,000 after buying an additional 1,335,060 shares during the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16,035.1% during the third quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,140,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $194,746,000 after buying an additional 1,133,197 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 115.4% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,088,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $162,861,000 after buying an additional 583,384 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 11.3% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,107,665 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $701,795,000 after buying an additional 416,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,362,796 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,358,334,000 after buying an additional 412,281 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.3%

BX opened at $118.18 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $87.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.23, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.63. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $101.73 and a twelve month high of $190.09. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $118.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.19.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.67% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.11 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $173.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $156.00 to $146.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $154.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.05.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $123.04 per share, for a total transaction of $43,679.20. Following the purchase, the director owned 41,818 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,145,286.72. This represents a 0.86% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone purchased 2,868,069 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $75,000,004.35. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 18,628,295 shares in the company, valued at $487,129,914.25. This represents a 18.20% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 12,355,303 shares of company stock worth $264,789,896 and sold 9,128,660 shares worth $46,457,920. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.