Western Wealth Management LLC Has $2.30 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Western Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 17.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 17,580 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,649 shares during the quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,302,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,652,526,000 after acquiring an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $510,355,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 96,256.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,790,996 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $429,634,000 after buying an additional 5,784,986 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 13,816.5% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 43.9% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,877,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $736,833,000 after purchasing an additional 2,098,150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE BX traded down $0.70 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $119.62. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 686,667 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,679,074. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $126.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $117.66. The stock has a market cap of $85.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. 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 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its 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 business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 205.46%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Reginald J. Brown acquired 2,400 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $125.62 per share, with a total value of $301,488.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 16,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,129,133.38. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on BX shares. Oppenheimer cut Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. TheStreet lowered Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $119.97.

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.