World Investment Advisors Sells 5,040 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

World Investment Advisors decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 79,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,040 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $11,571,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,827,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,100,868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,335,060 shares during the period. Close Asset Management Ltd lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 16,035.1% in the third quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,140,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $194,746,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,197 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 115.4% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,088,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $162,861,000 after acquiring an additional 583,384 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 11.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,107,665 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $701,795,000 after acquiring an additional 416,933 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,362,796 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,358,334,000 after buying an additional 412,281 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on BX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Blackstone from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $126.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Blackstone from $215.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Argus decreased their target price on Blackstone from $163.00 to $146.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.36.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $122.86 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $116.70 and a 200 day moving average of $135.35. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $101.73 and a 52-week high of $190.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $91.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.42, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.Blackstone’s revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.11 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.91 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.67%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,504 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.51, for a total value of $26,246,039.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 25,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $90,670.32. This represents a 99.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $15,961,420.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 9,128,660 shares of company stock worth $46,457,920 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.