Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Has $15.85 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC raised its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 9.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 92,758 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 7,926 shares during the period. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $15,848,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,394,670,000 after buying an additional 1,494,796 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,542,863 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,462,706,000 after buying an additional 227,416 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,071,348,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,532,941 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $678,037,000 after acquiring an additional 202,245 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $178.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 24th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone bought 385,208 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.96 per share, with a total value of $9,999,999.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,332,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $424,001,642.68. The trade was a 2.42% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the transaction, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders purchased 2,950,751 shares of company stock worth $79,050,138 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.7%

Blackstone stock opened at $153.10 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $113.06 billion, a PE ratio of 43.74, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.76. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $149.64 and its 200 day moving average is $158.95. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

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.