Delta Financial Advisors LLC Invests $229,000 in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Delta Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 1,748 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 30.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,652,526,000 after acquiring an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased 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 valued at $1,668,954,000 after acquiring an additional 798,734 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,419,249,000 after acquiring an additional 332,962 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone by 13.3% in the third 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 buying an additional 1,744,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 7.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $695,952,000 after buying an additional 522,561 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.5 %

Blackstone stock traded down $3.03 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $120.16. 2,879,631 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,682,777. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $79.92 and a 52-week high of $133.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $126.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $117.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.02). Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 EPS 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 paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 205.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BX. TheStreet lowered shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $119.97.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last three months. 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.