Eagle Bay Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 11.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,384 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 172 shares during the period. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 12,090.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,219 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,209 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 58,777 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,277,000 after acquiring an additional 2,002 shares during the period. BOKF NA grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 8,764 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 940 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 182,722 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $22,659,000 after acquiring an additional 11,927 shares during the period. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at about $365,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE BX traded down $1.16 on Monday, reaching $163.69. The stock had a trading volume of 1,243,799 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,480,671. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $180.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $156.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $114.88 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS 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, sell-side analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on BX shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $188.00 to $195.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $199.00 to $192.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $170.50.

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.