Covenant Asset Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Covenant Asset Management LLC lowered its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 15,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 521 shares during the quarter. Covenant Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,380,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 232.8% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,158 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $151,000 after purchasing an additional 810 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 211.3% during the 1st quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,657 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $743,000 after acquiring an additional 3,840 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 19,048.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,409 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $247,423,000 after acquiring an additional 1,873,573 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 157,262 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $20,659,000 after acquiring an additional 15,610 shares during the period. Finally, BOKF NA lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. BOKF NA now owns 7,824 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 price objective for the company. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $157.63.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 5.0 %

NYSE BX opened at $194.21 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $164.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $141.94. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $105.51 and a 12 month high of $194.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $140.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.74, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.49.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

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.