Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. Sells 208 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. cut its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,220 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 208 shares during the quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $482,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Arcus Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the second quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,460 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares during the last quarter. United Bank increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 14.7% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,024,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares during the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY lifted its position in Blackstone by 10.5% during the second quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 15,800 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ariston Services Group purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,287,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $156.37 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $171.66 and a 200 day moving average of $154.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $115.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.03, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its 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 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. HSBC raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $179.00 in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.26.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone

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.