Blackstone Inc. $BX Holdings Cut by Earned Wealth Advisors LLC

Earned Wealth Advisors LLC cut its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,124 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 190 shares during the quarter. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 1.7% during the first quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 53,672 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,502,000 after buying an additional 888 shares in the last quarter. Rossby Financial LCC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $41,000. Keybank National Association OH boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 16,007 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $324,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on BX. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $166.00 target price on Blackstone and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $148.42 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day moving average is $168.98 and its 200-day moving average is $156.52. The firm has a market cap of $109.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. 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. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

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.