Focus Partners Wealth Trims Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Focus Partners Wealth trimmed its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 86.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 90,792 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 576,670 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth's holdings in Blackstone were worth $15,654,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.0% during 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 buying an additional 444,887 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,209,707,000 after buying an additional 681,512 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 371,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $974,448,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. This represents a 5.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have bought 1,660,538 shares of company stock worth $24,981,930. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock traded down $0.07 during trading on Friday, reaching $146.69. The company had a trading volume of 3,788,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,776,759. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $137.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $161.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $107.03 billion, a PE ratio of 40.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released 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 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. 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 posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share 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 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 2.54%. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 112.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Blackstone from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $154.82.

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.