D.A. Davidson & CO. Sells 13,957 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lowered its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 171,855 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 13,957 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $26,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281,128 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $775,758,000 after acquiring an additional 141,616 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after purchasing an additional 4,173,971 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $602,017,000 after purchasing an additional 61,739 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,591,452 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $243,699,000 after buying an additional 24,199 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $193.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $139.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.36, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $105.51 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a 50 day moving average of $166.63 and a 200-day moving average of $143.28.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler lowered Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.63.

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.