Veracity Capital LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Veracity Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.8% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,152 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Veracity Capital LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $414,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,244,379,000 after purchasing an additional 880,745 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Blackstone by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,417,140,000 after acquiring an additional 1,367,581 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $708,859,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Blackstone by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,246,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $562,058,000 after buying an additional 106,251 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $123.45 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.43. The company has a market cap of $88.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.60, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BX. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

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.