Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Position Cut by South Street Advisors LLC

South Street Advisors LLC decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 109,307 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,654 shares during the quarter. Blackstone comprises approximately 2.5% of South Street Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. South Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $16,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% in 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 boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in Blackstone by 7.5% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,766,875,000 after buying an additional 2,546,886 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 19,048.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,409 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $247,423,000 after acquiring an additional 1,873,573 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 213.5% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,375,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $170,345,000 after purchasing an additional 937,084 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays boosted their price target on Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock traded up $0.20 on Friday, reaching $181.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,893,873 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,417,253. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $161.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $140.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $102.79 and a twelve month high of $184.34. The company has a market cap of $130.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.32, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.49.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.