World Investment Advisors Sells 5,040 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

World Investment Advisors lowered its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 79,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,040 shares during the quarter. World Investment Advisors’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $11,571,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,667,695 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,046,859,000 after purchasing an additional 840,258 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Blackstone by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,362,796 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,358,334,000 after purchasing an additional 412,281 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Blackstone by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,324,989 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,251,474,000 after purchasing an additional 329,379 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Blackstone by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,677,997 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $799,236,000 after purchasing an additional 145,056 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,107,665 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $701,795,000 after acquiring an additional 416,933 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on BX. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $215.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Blackstone from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Blackstone from $171.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Blackstone from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,504 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.51, for a total value of $26,246,039.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 25,832 shares in the company, valued at $90,670.32. The trade was a 99.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $15,961,420.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 9,128,660 shares of company stock worth $46,457,920 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $122.86 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $101.73 and a 12 month high of $190.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $91.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.63. The business has a 50-day moving average of $116.70 and a 200-day moving average of $135.35.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.11 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were given a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 118.67%.

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.