Dupont Capital Management Corp Sells 13,397 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Dupont Capital Management Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 18.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 57,775 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 13,397 shares during the period. Dupont Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $8,076,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,637,266,000 after purchasing an additional 444,887 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Blackstone by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,209,707,000 after purchasing an additional 681,512 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,032,400,000 after acquiring an additional 371,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $974,448,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.65.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares in the company, valued at $5,053,344.11. This trade represents a 0.64% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at $65,819,775.92. This trade represents a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.0%

BX stock opened at $137.45 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $137.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $154.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The company has a market capitalization of $100.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.65.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.05%.

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.