Alpha Cubed Investments LLC Boosts Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,459 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $715,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 303,069 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $40,348,000 after purchasing an additional 15,875 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,734,000. Kampmann Melissa S. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,314,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1,722.9% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 504,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $54,046,000 after acquiring an additional 476,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 536.5% in the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,181 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after acquiring an additional 11,110 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BX. TheStreet downgraded Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Thirteen research 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:BX opened at $116.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $83.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.20, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $79.92 and a 1-year high of $133.56. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $125.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $118.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 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.