Capital Analysts LLC Sells 140 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Capital Analysts LLC decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 11.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,115 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 140 shares during the quarter. Capital Analysts LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $146,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $484,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 86.2% in the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 39,671 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,194,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Secure Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.9% in the third quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 11,638 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,247,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE BX opened at $120.28 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $79.92 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.73, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $126.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.66.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.02). Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 205.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. TheStreet lowered Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Oppenheimer lowered Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $119.97.

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.