Cetera Investment Advisers Trims Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Cetera Investment Advisers trimmed its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 293,136 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 25,749 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $36,290,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on BX shares. Redburn Atlantic began coverage on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $163.00 price objective for the company. Barclays increased their target price on Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $145.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $130.78.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.8 %

BX opened at $151.88 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $88.59 and a 1-year high of $161.25. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $141.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $130.86. 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 company has a market capitalization of $108.54 billion, a PE ratio of 53.67, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.51.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.90%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total transaction of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.