Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by SG Americas Securities LLC

SG Americas Securities LLC cut its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 67.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,681 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 89,644 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $6,534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Family CFO Inc acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on BX. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.00.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $141.46 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $163.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $157.95. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $104.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.42, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 147.43%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have acquired 2,565,543 shares of company stock worth $69,050,139 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.