Legal & General Group Plc Sells 1,613,932 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 26.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,390,656 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 1,613,932 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.61% of Blackstone worth $757,037,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wealthcare Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,102,000. Highland Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 214.2% during the fourth quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 22,303 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,845,000 after buying an additional 15,205 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 58,229 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $10,053,000 after buying an additional 4,688 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in 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. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 6.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 909,698 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $139,302,000 after acquiring an additional 51,897 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Remove Ads

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Blackstone from $160.00 to $139.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price target on Blackstone from $186.00 to $129.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group raised shares of Blackstone from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $180.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JMP Securities upgraded shares of Blackstone from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $165.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $157.22.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded down $0.26 during trading on Friday, hitting $127.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,805,964 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,690,525. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $149.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $92.77 billion, a PE ratio of 35.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.53%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is 158.68%.

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.