Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Acquires New Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,588 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Telemus Capital LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Telemus Capital LLC now owns 82,423 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,791,000 after acquiring an additional 1,595 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1,200.0% during the 4th quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $170,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI bought a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $359,000. Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $98,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 41.6% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,883 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,227,000 after purchasing an additional 67,880 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related 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 stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Reginald J. Brown purchased 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was bought at an average price of $125.62 per share, with a total value of $301,488.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,129,133.38. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $125.00 price objective (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.94.

Blackstone Trading Up 3.1 %

BX stock opened at $122.09 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $126.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $118.06. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $79.92 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $87.25 billion, a PE ratio of 43.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 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 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 132.86%.

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.