Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. Sells 1,580 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,696 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,580 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,797,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Arcus Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $331,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,202,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. WNY Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $576,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Finally, Jeppson Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $980,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 2,551,515 shares of company stock valued at $67,038,327 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BX. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $166.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 24th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.74.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $146.45 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $168.51 and a 200-day moving average of $156.64. The company has a market capitalization of $107.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 147.43%.

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.