USS Investment Management Ltd Has $30.58 Million Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

USS Investment Management Ltd reduced its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 177,472 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,754 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $30,584,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 18,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,236,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214 shares in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel increased its position in Blackstone by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 1,536 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 26.2% in the 4th quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 17,141 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,956,000 after buying an additional 3,562 shares in the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,170 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $374,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smart Money Group LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 187.2% during the 4th quarter. Smart Money Group LLC now owns 3,613 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $623,000 after purchasing an additional 2,355 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,005. This represents a 24,898.76% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on BX shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price 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. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.82.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $145.38 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $106.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a 50 day moving average of $137.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $161.28.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly 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). Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.