Norden Group LLC Sells 251 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Norden Group LLC trimmed its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,038 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 251 shares during the period. Norden Group LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $704,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Abbot Financial Management Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 2.4% during the first quarter. Abbot Financial Management Inc. now owns 27,272 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,812,000 after buying an additional 628 shares during the last quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL increased its holdings in Blackstone by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 18,316 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,560,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone by 7.0% during the first quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 10,847 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,516,000 after purchasing an additional 714 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 7.3% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 1,145,835 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $160,165,000 after purchasing an additional 77,916 shares during the period. Finally, Texas Yale Capital Corp. boosted its position in Blackstone by 3.5% during the first quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 143,624 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $20,076,000 after purchasing an additional 4,890 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.0%

NYSE BX opened at $177.00 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a fifty day moving average of $150.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $150.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.58, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.65. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone acquired 1,660,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,005. This represents a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired a total of 2,849,769 shares of company stock valued at $54,932,307 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.