Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Bought by Bank OZK

Bank OZK grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,189 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 714 shares during the period. Bank OZK’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,334,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Caprock Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 4,929 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 868 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 287,194 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,770,000 after buying an additional 6,016 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 163,003 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,464,000 after buying an additional 6,559 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.9% during the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 5,710 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $612,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the period. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 31.0% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 13,447 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 3,184 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was 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 directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of BX traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $122.49. 2,962,718 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,161,162. The company has a market cap of $87.54 billion, a PE ratio of 43.27, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $125.96 and its 200-day moving average is $118.39. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $79.92 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released 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. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The firm’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 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. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. TheStreet lowered Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Argus lifted their price target on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

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.