Essex LLC Has $341,000 Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Essex LLC cut its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 26.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 953 shares during the period. Essex LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $341,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,652,526,000 after buying an additional 14,396,655 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,668,954,000 after acquiring an additional 798,734 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,419,249,000 after acquiring an additional 332,962 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 13.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,588,433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,744,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $695,952,000 after buying an additional 522,561 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on BX shares. TheStreet cut shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 target price (down previously from $140.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Reginald J. Brown purchased 2,400 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $125.62 per share, for a total transaction of $301,488.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,949 shares in the company, valued at $2,129,133.38. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 over the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of BX traded down $2.90 on Friday, reaching $123.97. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,385,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,644,163. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $126.92 and a 200-day moving average of $117.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.59 billion, a PE ratio of 69.33, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.16. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 5th were given a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 2nd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 205.46%.

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.