Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Stock Holdings Lessened by Transform Wealth LLC

Transform Wealth LLC lessened its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 29,741 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,786 shares during the quarter. Transform Wealth LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,852 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $259,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the first quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 37,120 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,189,000 after buying an additional 1,055 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 243.1% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 133,325 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $18,636,000 after purchasing an additional 94,464 shares during the last quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% in the first quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 10,265 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avanza Fonder AB lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Avanza Fonder AB now owns 53,142 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,847,000 after buying an additional 915 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on BX shares. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price 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. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.65.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.1%

Blackstone stock opened at $142.98 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $135.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $156.70. The company has a market capitalization of $104.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.65. 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 (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.05%.

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.