Dearborn Partners LLC Decreases Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Dearborn Partners LLC reduced its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,668 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 514 shares during the quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,399,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Portside Wealth Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at $201,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 431,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $53,455,000 after buying an additional 7,692 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 936.2% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $783,000 after acquiring an additional 5,383 shares in the last quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $557,000. Finally, Scientech Research LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,364,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BX. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler downgraded Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $181.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company has a market cap of $130.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $102.59 and a one year high of $184.34. The business has a fifty day moving average of $159.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $139.31.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. As a group, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a $0.86 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.21%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.