Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Holdings Trimmed by Ensign Peak Advisors Inc

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc trimmed its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,145,574 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 15,200 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned 0.16% of Blackstone worth $141,822,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Moseley Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.7% during the second quarter. Moseley Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,239 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,391,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 13,840 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,713,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 13,615 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,686,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 23.7% in the 2nd quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 439 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beaumont Asset Management L.L.C. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the second quarter. Beaumont Asset Management L.L.C. now owns 6,672 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $826,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $163.00 price objective for the company. Barclays raised their price objective on Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Blackstone from $145.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $130.78.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at $113,305,632. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total transaction of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $158.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $113.02 billion, a PE ratio of 55.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $139.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $129.33. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $88.59 and a 12-month high of $161.25.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.90%.

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.