Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by ING Groep NV

ING Groep NV decreased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 58.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 36,294 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 52,098 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,558,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kapstone Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth $250,000. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Blackstone by 4.2% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 20,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,177,000 after purchasing an additional 840 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 28,027 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,292,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058 shares during the period. Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 979.9% in the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 1,771 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $271,000 after buying an additional 1,607 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Blackstone by 87.2% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 166,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $25,482,000 after acquiring an additional 77,537 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Piper Sandler cut Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $157.63.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of BX opened at $181.36 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $130.94 billion, a PE ratio of 62.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $160.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $139.60. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $102.79 and a fifty-two week high of $184.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a $0.86 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend yield of 1.90%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.