Stokes Family Office LLC Grows Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Stokes Family Office LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,717 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 149 shares during the quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $356,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marino Stram & Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $667,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $484,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BX. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX traded down $1.00 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $117.99. The stock had a trading volume of 4,437,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,497,968. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $125.29 and its 200 day moving average is $118.76. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.69, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.52.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 117.31%.

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.