Commerce Bank Buys 210,177 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Commerce Bank grew its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 258.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 291,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 210,177 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $50,250,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,637,266,000 after buying an additional 444,887 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Blackstone by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,032,400,000 after buying an additional 371,677 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $974,448,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,045,143 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $697,464,000 after acquiring an additional 113,732 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on BX. Citigroup lowered their price target on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price objective on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.72.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $130.26 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $95.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $145.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $164.91.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. The business 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 firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business 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 (DPR) is presently 158.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.