Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Park Avenue Securities LLC

Park Avenue Securities LLC decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 14.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 33,732 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,756 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,200,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,827,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,100,868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,335,060 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,362,796 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,358,334,000 after purchasing an additional 412,281 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Blackstone by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,324,989 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,251,474,000 after purchasing an additional 329,379 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,071,348,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.2% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,677,997 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $799,236,000 after buying an additional 145,056 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $158.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Blackstone from $164.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Argus decreased their target price on Blackstone from $195.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Blackstone from $185.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $158.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.86.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $110.40 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $81.94 billion, a PE ratio of 28.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.79. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $101.73 and a 52-week high of $190.09. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $130.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $148.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The asset manager reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $4.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.17% and a net margin of 20.89%.Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were given a $1.49 dividend. This represents a $5.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.4%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 153.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total transaction of $15,961,420.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $26,246,039.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 25,832 shares in the company, valued at $90,670.32. This represents a 99.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Company 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.