Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Purchases 7,500 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 146,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,500 shares during the quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $22,520,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. United Bank raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14.7% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,024,000 after buying an additional 1,729 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $1,124,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 452,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $67,703,000 after acquiring an additional 8,655 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $167.00 to $156.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $173.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $156.00 to $146.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Barclays cut their price target on Blackstone from $126.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Blackstone from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 24th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.95.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $126.56 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $101.73 and a fifty-two week high of $190.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The company has a market cap of $93.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.63. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $115.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $136.94.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.11 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th will be paid a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 152.43%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone acquired 2,868,069 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $75,000,004.35. Following the purchase, the insider owned 18,628,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $487,129,914.25. This represents a 18.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.79, for a total value of $3,775,461.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 899,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $113,169,363.51. This trade represents a 3.23% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,103,660 shares of company stock valued at $45,982,920. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.