Private Trust Co. NA Sells 101 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Private Trust Co. NA cut its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,733 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 101 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,797,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 232.8% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,158 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $151,000 after buying an additional 810 shares during the period. BOKF NA increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.8% in the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 7,824 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 39.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,345,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $176,695,000 after purchasing an additional 383,827 shares in the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,486,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 15.8% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,250 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,266,000 after buying an additional 2,358 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays upped their price objective on Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $193.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $166.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $143.28. The stock has a market cap of $139.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.36, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $105.51 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.86 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.21%.

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.