Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt Grows Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 98.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,586 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 786 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $208,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after buying an additional 14,396,655 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,668,954,000 after acquiring an additional 798,734 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Blackstone by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after purchasing an additional 332,962 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,588,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 7.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $695,952,000 after purchasing an additional 522,561 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $120.28 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $79.92 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $85.96 billion, a PE ratio of 65.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $126.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $117.66.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.02). Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. 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 firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 205.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $119.97.

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.