Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by SVB Wealth LLC

SVB Wealth LLC reduced its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 88.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 19,173 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 145,804 shares during the quarter. SVB Wealth LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,510,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,652,526,000 after acquiring an additional 14,396,655 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Blackstone by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,419,249,000 after buying an additional 332,962 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,588,433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,744,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 7.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $695,952,000 after purchasing an additional 522,561 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $120.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Oppenheimer cut Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,349,313. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $123.19 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $88.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.64. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.48 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.07 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 5th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.05%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 205.46%.

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.