Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Lincoln National Corp

Lincoln National Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,402 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 939 shares during the quarter. Lincoln National Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,195,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp grew its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 3,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $435,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $484,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Hartford Financial Management Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 three months, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer lowered Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target 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 reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. 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 research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.2 %

BX traded up $0.29 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $121.50. 3,192,831 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,682,495. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $125.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $119.25. The company has a market cap of $86.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.93, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.52. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $80.05 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

About Blackstone

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.