Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,775 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 178 shares during the quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,855,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $183,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 126.5% in the first quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 573 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Trust Co grew its position in Blackstone by 17.0% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Trust Co now owns 2,225 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $311,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Breakwater Capital Group acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $215,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $173.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $153.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.12 billion, a PE ratio of 45.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on BX shares. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. JMP Securities increased their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.00.

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.