Blackstone Inc. $BX Position Lowered by Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 112,830 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,616 shares during the quarter. Blackstone comprises approximately 2.4% of Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $16,877,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,394,670,000 after buying an additional 1,494,796 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi grew its position in Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BX. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Barclays cut their price target on Blackstone from $171.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Blackstone from $177.00 to $176.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.00.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.0%

NYSE:BX opened at $146.35 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $194.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $108.07 billion, a PE ratio of 41.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. The business’s 50 day moving average is $154.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $158.04.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 147.43%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director James Breyer bought 13,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $143.86 per share, for a total transaction of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 68,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,912,817.16. The trade was a 25.27% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have purchased a total of 2,950,751 shares of company stock valued at $79,050,138 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.