Seneca House Advisors Decreases Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Seneca House Advisors lowered its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 59,804 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,199 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up about 3.4% of Seneca House Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Seneca House Advisors’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $7,856,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 9,699 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 367,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $48,158,000 after acquiring an additional 28,856 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Blackstone by 8.9% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $855,000. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 303,069 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,348,000 after acquiring an additional 15,875 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on BX shares. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price objective (down from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Thirteen investment 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.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:BX traded down $0.32 on Friday, reaching $123.80. The stock had a trading volume of 4,058,890 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,587,450. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a 50-day moving average of $122.37 and a 200 day moving average of $124.53. The stock has a market cap of $88.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.53. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $88.59 and a 12-month high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.68%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

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.