Cerity Partners LLC Cuts Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Cerity Partners LLC cut its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 370,878 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 9,929 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $55,480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James Breyer bought 13,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was bought at an average price of $143.86 per share, with a total value of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 68,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,912,817.16. This trade represents a 25.27% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 2,950,751 shares of company stock worth $79,050,138. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on BX shares. Evercore ISI lowered 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. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.00.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $152.07 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $194.00. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $152.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.24. The company has a market capitalization of $112.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.45, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 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.