DNB Asset Management AS Trims Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

DNB Asset Management AS reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 263,404 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,369 shares during the quarter. DNB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $40,601,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 23,595 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,637,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 18.3% during the fourth quarter. Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,911 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $295,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 41.7% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 402,059 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $61,973,000 after acquiring an additional 118,260 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 50.4% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 57,922 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,936,000 after buying an additional 19,399 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Conning Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 3,679 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $567,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.79, for a total transaction of $3,775,461.06. Following the sale, the insider owned 899,669 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,169,363.51. This represents a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone purchased 2,868,069 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $75,000,004.35. Following the purchase, the insider owned 18,628,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $487,129,914.25. This represents a 18.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have purchased 4,015,297 shares of company stock valued at $105,053,996 and have sold 9,128,660 shares valued at $46,457,920. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on BX. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $154.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Blackstone from $215.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $151.36.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $117.96 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.63. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $101.73 and a 12-month high of $190.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $117.10 and a 200 day moving average of $134.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.02. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.The company had revenue of $3.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.11 earnings per share. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.67%.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.