Nicholas Company Inc. Acquires 6,290 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Nicholas Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 15.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 47,910 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,290 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Company Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $7,385,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 15,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 47.2% in the 4th quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 872,480 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $134,484,000 after acquiring an additional 279,812 shares during the period. Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 45,540 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,720 shares during the period. Pure Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,124 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $790,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the period. Finally, Income Insurance Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $335,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Blackstone from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Blackstone from $141.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Blackstone from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Citizens Jmp cut their target price on Blackstone from $195.00 to $190.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.95.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $15,961,420.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,504 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.51, for a total value of $26,246,039.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 25,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $90,670.32. This trade represents a 99.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 9,103,660 shares of company stock valued at $45,982,920 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.1%

BX stock opened at $123.64 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $116.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $136.17. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $101.73 and a fifty-two week high of $190.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly 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. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.The firm had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.11 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th will be paid a $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 118.67%.

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.