Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 1,500 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 40,400 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,500 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 27,680 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its position in Blackstone by 31.6% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,088 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $404,000 after acquiring an additional 742 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $98,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $208,000. Finally, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. grew its position in Blackstone by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 25,296 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,312,000 after acquiring an additional 2,315 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX traded up $4.03 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $138.82. The company had a trading volume of 1,687,036 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,484,992. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $88.59 and a twelve month high of $145.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $99.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.50. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $130.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $126.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were given a dividend of $0.82 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.36%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.90%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total value of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at $56,567,311.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total transaction of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on BX. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $128.65.

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.