Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Has $1.84 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC cut its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 23.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,176 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 3,965 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,842,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 4,122 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $711,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,345 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $749,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Bridges Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $215,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 19.7% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $515,000 after buying an additional 494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 37,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This trade represents a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,000,005. This represents a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $1.57 during trading on Friday, reaching $155.13. 2,048,009 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,857,888. 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 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $113.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.72, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.65. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $141.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $151.28.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. UBS Group cut their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $156.65.

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.