SVB Wealth LLC Trims Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

SVB Wealth LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 88.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,173 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 145,804 shares during the quarter. SVB Wealth LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,510,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 30.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,668,954,000 after buying an additional 798,734 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after acquiring an additional 332,962 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,588,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $695,952,000 after purchasing an additional 522,561 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE:BX opened at $123.19 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $79.92 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The firm has a market cap of $88.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.32, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $117.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.16. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.07 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Investors of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 2nd. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.05%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 205.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer cut Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.92.

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.