First United Bank & Trust Sells 337 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

First United Bank & Trust lessened its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 337 shares during the quarter. First United Bank & Trust’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,700,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $316,257,000. Capital Research Global Investors acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $239,837,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $184,873,000 after buying an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $141.53 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $103.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $135.85 and a 200 day moving average of $156.59. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.63%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 112.05%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,005. This represents a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This represents a 0.64% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.65.

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.