Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Bank of New York Mellon Corp

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,378,627 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 7,517 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $754,963,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Sather Financial Group Inc boosted its stake in Blackstone by 202.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 6,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $926,000 after acquiring an additional 4,050 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $201,000. Aljian Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $1,951,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 2,185.4% during the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,901,000 after buying an additional 18,117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthcare Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,102,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $157.22 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.82 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.51 billion, a PE ratio of 43.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $172.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $166.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.