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

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 9.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund 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 quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. 1248 Management LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Traub Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter worth $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on BX shares. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price target on Blackstone from $178.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Blackstone from $177.00 to $176.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.95.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $153.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $113.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $190.09. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $149.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.95.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for 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 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James Breyer acquired 13,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $143.86 per share, for a total transaction of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 68,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,912,817.16. This trade represents a 25.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone bought 385,208 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $25.96 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,999.68. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 16,332,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $424,001,642.68. This represents a 2.42% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 2,950,751 shares of company stock valued at $79,050,138. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.