Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. Reduces Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. decreased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,368 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 443 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $310,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 4,256 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $557,000 after buying an additional 534 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc increased its stake in Blackstone by 33.1% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 468,770 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $61,371,000 after acquiring an additional 116,493 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,088 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 742 shares during the period. RIA Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $219,000. Finally, Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,280 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,477,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BX. UBS Group boosted their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday. TheStreet cut shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $118.92.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,349,313. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at $4,349,313. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.6 %

BX stock traded down $1.92 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $118.40. 4,161,306 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,894,347. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.84. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $79.92 and a 1-year high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $84.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 132.86%.

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.