Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Rise Advisors LLC

Rise Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,814 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 224 shares during the quarter. Rise Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $485,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after buying an additional 7,281,128 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 213.5% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,375,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $170,345,000 after acquiring an additional 937,084 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 468.4% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,107,547 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $137,114,000 after purchasing an additional 912,685 shares during the period. Finally, Castleark Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter valued at $67,472,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup upped their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.00.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX stock traded down $2.22 on Tuesday, reaching $172.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,429,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,888,176. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.88 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $180.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $155.66. The company has a market capitalization of $124.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 118.21%.

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.