Eastern Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Eastern Bank trimmed its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,996 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 137 shares during the period. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mattern Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 2.8% during the second quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $331,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 0.8% during the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,202,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 1.0% during the second 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. McAdam LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 4.4% during the first quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 1,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $246,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 0.6% during the first quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,819 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,652,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays cut their price target on Blackstone from $181.00 to $171.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. JMP Securities raised their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.00.

Blackstone Trading Down 4.2%

Shares of BX stock opened at $153.88 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $113.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $172.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $154.22. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

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.