Enterprise Bank & Trust Co Reduces Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Enterprise Bank & Trust Co trimmed its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,520 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 820 shares during the period. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $826,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Man Group plc grew its holdings in Blackstone by 222.0% in the 4th quarter. Man Group plc now owns 41,847 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,215,000 after buying an additional 28,850 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 154,718 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $26,676,000 after buying an additional 11,414 shares in the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $833,000. Finally, Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $315,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. This represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3%

BX opened at $181.44 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $133.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.77, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $150.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

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.