AA Financial Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

AA Financial Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 12.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,829 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 262 shares during the period. AA Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $256,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Inscription Capital LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $834,000. Grove Bank & Trust raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 70.8% in the first quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 2,895 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $405,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 125,531 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,547,000 after purchasing an additional 3,451 shares in the last quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 25.7% in the 1st quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC now owns 12,092 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,690,000 after purchasing an additional 2,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Retirement Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% during the first quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. now owns 19,537 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,731,000 after buying an additional 722 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.9%

BX stock opened at $135.65 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The company has a market cap of $98.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $136.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $154.88.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 112.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This trade represents a 0.64% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone purchased 1,660,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. TD Cowen cut their price target on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus 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.