Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Insider John G. Finley Sells 25,000 Shares of Stock

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. This represents a 5.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $139.41 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $136.87 and a 200 day moving average of $162.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $101.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.40, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 112.05%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $63,109,000. Wealthcare Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $2,102,000. Highland Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 214.2% during the 4th quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 22,303 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,845,000 after purchasing an additional 15,205 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Blackstone by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 58,229 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,053,000 after purchasing an additional 4,688 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after buying an additional 889,286 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.82.

Blackstone Company 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.