Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. reduced its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 25,775 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 178 shares during the quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,855,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in Blackstone by 105.4% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 22.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182 shares during the period. Narwhal Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.3% during the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 16,486 shares during the period. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $423,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $124.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company’s 50-day moving average is $173.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $153.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

About Blackstone

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.