Cetera Trust Company N.A Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 750 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $98,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 763.0% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 233 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the period. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Family CFO Inc acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, 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 valued at $37,816,476 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TheStreet downgraded Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.94.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $122.09 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $79.92 and a 52-week high of $133.56. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.06. The company has a market capitalization of $87.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The company’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. Research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 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.