Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 32.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 934,966 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 441,003 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $143,171,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake 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 valued at $908,797,000 after acquiring an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the 3rd 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. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in Blackstone by 468.4% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,107,547 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $137,114,000 after acquiring an additional 912,685 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in Blackstone by 7,917.6% during the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 400,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $49,520,000 after acquiring an additional 395,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,953,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

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

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $191.64 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $105.51 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a market capitalization of $138.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.49. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.86 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on BX. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.63.

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.