Bleakley Financial Group LLC Cuts Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 11.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,945 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 4,428 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BX. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 154,632 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $20,314,000 after acquiring an additional 7,915 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 157,920 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $20,746,000 after purchasing an additional 2,320 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 35,096 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,611,000 after buying an additional 2,042 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in Blackstone by 8.0% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 218,645 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $28,709,000 after buying an additional 16,170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.3% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 56,806 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $7,463,000 after acquiring an additional 1,837 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BX. Argus boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $123.00.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of BX stock traded down $2.08 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $134.93. 5,850,210 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,478,257. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.50. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $88.59 and a one year high of $137.36. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $123.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.18.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone's payout ratio is 117.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.

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