Blue Fin Capital Inc. Cuts Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Blue Fin Capital Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 713 shares during the quarter. Blue Fin Capital Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,936,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 10.4% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 25,804 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,765,000 after buying an additional 2,427 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 1.5% during the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 23,734 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,543,000 after buying an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 7.9% during the third quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 5,030 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $539,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 54.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,675,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $500,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,649,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bouchey Financial Group Ltd bought a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter worth $238,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.8 %

BX stock traded down $1.00 during trading on Friday, hitting $117.99. 4,437,459 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,497,968. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.69, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.52. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $125.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BX. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Argus upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

About Blackstone

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.