Edgewood Management LLC Sells 269,789 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Edgewood Management LLC cut its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,552,589 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 269,789 shares during the quarter. Blackstone accounts for about 4.8% of Edgewood Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Edgewood Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,769,048,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after acquiring an additional 7,281,128 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $775,758,000 after purchasing an additional 141,616 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,670,645 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $613,581,000 after buying an additional 21,450 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $602,017,000 after acquiring an additional 61,739 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Piper Sandler lowered Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.63.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s 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 owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $194.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $140.22 billion, a PE ratio of 66.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $141.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $105.51 and a 12-month high of $194.64.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

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.