Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Purchases 226 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $494,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 86.2% in the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 763.0% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 233 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 206 shares during the period. Family CFO Inc purchased a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at $4,349,313. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America cut their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Oppenheimer downgraded Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $122.94.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX stock traded up $2.68 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $124.77. 1,844,434 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,696,608. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $89.17 billion, a PE ratio of 43.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 132.86%.

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.