Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by Verdence Capital Advisors LLC

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 37.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 91,760 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 25,047 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $10,285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $221,478,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at approximately $8,667,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.1% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 245,370 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,873,000 after buying an additional 11,983 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,340,000. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 82.5% during the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 23,206 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,615,000 after buying an additional 10,489 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.80, for a total value of $12,380,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 771,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,523,956.20. This represents a 11.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone sold 124,600 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.40, for a total transaction of $2,043,440.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 464,792 shares of company stock valued at $12,205,945 and sold 4,077,276 shares valued at $37,573,644. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $128.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 16th. Citizens Jmp cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $144.57.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $118.85 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $125.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $125.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a market capitalization of $89.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.59. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $101.73 and a 1-year high of $165.14.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The asset manager reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.06. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.16% and a net margin of 22.11%. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.27 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 9th. Investors of record on Monday, November 2nd will be issued a dividend of $1.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 2nd. This is a decrease from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.56%.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE:BX) is a global alternative asset management firm that provides investment and advisory services to institutional investors, companies, and qualified individual investors. The company manages capital across private equity, real estate, credit and insurance, infrastructure, hedge fund solutions, secondaries, and growth-oriented investments.

Blackstone invests in and manages portfolios of businesses, properties, infrastructure assets, and credit instruments across a range of industries.