First Interstate Bank Trims Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

First Interstate Bank decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 35,222 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 122 shares during the quarter. First Interstate Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,269,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $156.37 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $115.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company’s 50-day moving average is $171.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $154.98. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. Research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $171.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.26.

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.