Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Holdings Trimmed by Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 40.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,556 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 60,711 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $11,087,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BX. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 36.6% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 36,215 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,741,000 after purchasing an additional 9,699 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 367,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $48,158,000 after buying an additional 28,856 shares during the last quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% in the first quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 20,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,649,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Blackstone by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 254,099 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $33,267,000 after acquiring an additional 20,830 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 2,072.0% during the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 36,555 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,802,000 after buying an additional 34,872 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Argus increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $127.56.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $3.46 on Tuesday, reaching $132.74. 797,788 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,522,841. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $128.32 and its 200-day moving average is $126.16. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $88.59 and a one year high of $145.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market cap of $94.86 billion, a PE ratio of 45.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.93 earnings per share. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total value of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at $56,567,311.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total value of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at $56,567,311.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.