Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Annex Advisory Services LLC

Annex Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 28.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,035 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,587 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,396,655 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,417,140,000 after acquiring an additional 1,367,581 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 43.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,877,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $736,833,000 after acquiring an additional 2,098,150 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $841,783,000 after acquiring an additional 322,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $708,859,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $125.00 price target (down from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.2 %

Blackstone stock traded up $2.63 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $121.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,611,797 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,607,256. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $85.10 and a 1-year high of $133.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $123.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $123.11. The stock has a market cap of $86.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 117.31%.

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.