Western Financial Corp CA Has $621,000 Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Western Financial Corp CA boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 23.0% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 829 shares during the quarter. Western Financial Corp CA’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $621,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $63,109,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,363,000 after buying an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,747,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 716,319 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $123,508,000 after buying an additional 5,951 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of BX stock opened at $143.62 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $137.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $153.16. The stock has a market cap of $104.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 112.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on BX. Morgan Stanley decreased 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. UBS Group reduced their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Bank of America cut their price target on Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.65.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone bought 1,660,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,000,005. The trade was a 24,898.76% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 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.