Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Reduces Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC reduced its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 10.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 150,893 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 17,308 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $21,548,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,637,266,000 after purchasing an additional 444,887 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Blackstone by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,209,707,000 after purchasing an additional 681,512 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,032,400,000 after buying an additional 371,677 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $974,448,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $156.65.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:BX traded up $1.57 during trading on Friday, hitting $155.13. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,048,009 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,850,287. The company has a market capitalization of $113.19 billion, a PE ratio of 46.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $140.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $151.62.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 19.84%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $0.93 dividend. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is presently 112.05%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,666,667 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,000,005. The trade was a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 475,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at $65,819,775.92. This trade represents a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company 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.