Essex Financial Services Inc. Buys 173 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 24,066 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 173 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,151,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,396,655 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 13,816.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,623,868 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,744,370,000 after acquiring an additional 3,597,828 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Blackstone by 43.9% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,877,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $736,833,000 after purchasing an additional 2,098,150 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Blackstone by 255.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,698,085 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $289,073,000 after acquiring an additional 1,938,593 shares during the period. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter valued at approximately $190,920,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

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

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX traded up $2.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $118.62. The company had a trading volume of 1,852,220 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,652,265. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $125.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $118.77. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $79.92 and a fifty-two week high of $133.56. The firm has a market cap of $84.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.80%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 117.31%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BX. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. TheStreet cut Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, Argus increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.