Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 165,668 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 10,392 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $24,781,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 62,484 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,949 shares during the period. Redmond Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 21.2% during the 2nd quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC now owns 18,785 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,810,000 after buying an additional 3,281 shares during the period. Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $273,000. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the second quarter worth $423,000. Finally, Sandy Cove Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 22.1% during the second quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director James Breyer acquired 13,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $143.86 per share, with a total value of $1,999,654.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 68,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,912,817.16. This trade represents a 25.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders bought 2,565,141 shares of company stock worth $68,991,351 and sold 185,350 shares worth $32,368,954. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Barclays decreased their target price on Blackstone from $171.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $173.00 to $168.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.74.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of BX opened at $144.93 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $164.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $157.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a $1.29 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 147.43%.

About Blackstone

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.