Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Institute for Wealth Management LLC.

Institute for Wealth Management LLC. lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,741 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 503 shares during the period. Institute for Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,192,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 30.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after acquiring an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Blackstone by 2.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after acquiring an additional 332,962 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 13.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,588,433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,744,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 7.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $695,952,000 after acquiring an additional 522,561 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BX. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $118.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly 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 is available through this link. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded down $1.79 during trading on Friday, hitting $118.53. The stock had a trading volume of 2,683,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,707,027. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $84.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.23, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $126.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.66. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. Blackstone’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 205.46%.

Blackstone Company 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.