SouthState Corp Sells 4,342 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

SouthState Corp cut its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 122,525 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,342 shares during the period. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $18,327,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter worth $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Family CFO Inc bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup dropped their price target on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price target on Blackstone from $178.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.74.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s 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 in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,565,415 shares of company stock valued at $69,037,981 and sold 16,875,234 shares valued at $136,847,628. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $144.32 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $166.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $157.09. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.23, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current 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 $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.