Verum Partners LLC Grows Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Verum Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,152 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the quarter. Verum Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $441,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BX. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $269,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 24,722 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,262,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 6,852 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Silver Oak Securities Incorporated purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $285,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on BX shares. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $140.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $102.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $135.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $157.65.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS 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. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 112.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. This represents a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $15.00 per share, for a total transaction of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,005. The trade was a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.