Joseph Baratta Sells 116,448 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Stock

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock traded down $1.01 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $151.20. 2,108,818 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,456,484. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.59 and a fifty-two week high of $161.25. The company has a market capitalization of $108.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $142.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $131.01.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 115.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $163.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.17.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,442,227,000 after buying an additional 1,290,324 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 7.5% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,766,875,000 after buying an additional 2,546,886 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after buying an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $775,758,000 after buying an additional 141,616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,670,645 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $613,581,000 after buying an additional 21,450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.