Montecito Bank & Trust Has $849,000 Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Montecito Bank & Trust reduced its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,072 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 370 shares during the quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,637,266,000 after purchasing an additional 444,887 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,209,707,000 after purchasing an additional 681,512 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,032,400,000 after buying an additional 371,677 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $974,448,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone acquired 1,660,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $15.00 per share, for a total transaction of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,000,005. The trade was a 24,898.76% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $138.06 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $100.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.03, a PEG 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. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $136.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $155.02. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 112.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Citizens Jmp raised Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Citigroup dropped their price target on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.65.

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.