Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. Purchases 2,315 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. lifted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,296 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 2,315 shares during the period. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,312,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. PFG Advisors acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth $226,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth $9,036,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth $463,000. Essex LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth $381,000. Finally, Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 19.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,904 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 2,796 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.94.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $122.09 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.06. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 132.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone 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 transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last quarter. 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.