Conning Inc. Sells 127 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Conning Inc. lowered its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,417 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 127 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $511,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth $151,524,000. Amundi boosted its position in Blackstone by 69.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.00.

Blackstone Stock Down 4.2%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $153.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $172.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $154.22.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Company 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.