Captrust Financial Advisors Cuts Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Captrust Financial Advisors lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 117,157 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,289 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $20,200,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bangor Savings Bank boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 187.5% in the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $134.02 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $97.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.92, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $137.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $162.87.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a $0.93 dividend. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $154.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone acquired 1,660,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $15.00 per share, for a total transaction of $24,900,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,005. This represents a 24,898.76 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares in the company, valued at $5,053,344.11. This represents a 0.64 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired 1,660,538 shares of company stock valued at $24,981,930 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.