Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Purchased by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 7,963 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 173 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,043,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the business’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 value of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price target (down from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE BX traded down $2.10 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $119.40. 922,995 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,651,371. 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 $85.33 billion, a PE ratio of 42.94, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.52. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $124.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $119.45. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $80.05 and a fifty-two week 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. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

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.