Stratos Investment Management LLC Trims Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Stratos Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,812 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 312 shares during the period. Stratos Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $533,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $974,448,000. Capital Research Global Investors acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $239,837,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $184,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after buying an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 38.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,990,238 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $515,577,000 after buying an additional 835,170 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Blackstone from $139.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.65.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the business’s 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 owned 475,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone acquired 1,660,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,005. The trade was a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $156.36 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.10, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $142.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $151.07.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 112.05%.

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.