Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by State of Michigan Retirement System

State of Michigan Retirement System reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 196,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $33,794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 0.5% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,926 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,132,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Blackstone by 19.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,355,000 after buying an additional 3,271 shares in the last quarter. Blue Square Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.2% during the third quarter. Blue Square Asset Management LLC now owns 17,241 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,640,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 27.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 17,438 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,670,000 after purchasing an additional 3,762 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ground Swell Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $254,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. 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 company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $158.36 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $171.49 and a 200-day moving average of $166.83. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.82 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $114.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.63, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.