Merrion Investment Management Co LLC Sells 500 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Merrion Investment Management Co LLC decreased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Merrion Investment Management Co LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 2,226 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $311,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 119.5% in the first quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,659 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,150,000 after purchasing an additional 4,714 shares in the last quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 157.9% in the first quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 4,462 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $624,000 after purchasing an additional 2,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Callahan Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $227,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BX. Citigroup lowered their target price on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James Breyer bought 13,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $143.86 per share, for a total transaction of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 68,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,912,817.16. This trade represents a 25.27% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 2,565,415 shares of company stock worth $69,037,981 and have sold 16,875,234 shares worth $136,847,628. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.8%

Blackstone stock opened at $146.00 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $107.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $165.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $157.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. As a group, analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 147.43%.

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.