Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 1.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 435,814 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 7,972 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of Blackstone worth $57,253,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Stonegate Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 20,165 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,649,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 2,661 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $350,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 2,198 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $1,346,000. Finally, Bay Rivers Group boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Bay Rivers Group now owns 19,853 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,608,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Blackstone from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $123.65.
Check Out Our Latest Report on BX
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company's stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company's stock, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.
Blackstone Stock Performance
Shares of BX traded up $1.50 on Thursday, reaching $118.99. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,619,777 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,682,439. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.05, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.52. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $125.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $118.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $79.92 and a 12-month high of $133.56.
Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Blackstone Cuts Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is presently 117.31%.
About Blackstone
(
Free Report)
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.
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