Norway Savings Bank Has $1.07 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Norway Savings Bank boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 10.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 11,523 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,115 shares during the quarter. Norway Savings Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 498.7% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,290,886 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,079,631,000 after acquiring an additional 10,238,110 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $510,355,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 96,256.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,790,996 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $429,634,000 after purchasing an additional 5,784,986 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 40,375,831 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,546,613,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480,848 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.35% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings I/Ii Gp L. Blackstone sold 14,704,603 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.98, for a total transaction of $117,342,731.94. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,943.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director William G. Parrett sold 3,874 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.47, for a total value of $435,708.78. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,479,934.27. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings I/Ii Gp L. Blackstone sold 14,704,603 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.98, for a total transaction of $117,342,731.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,602 shares in the company, valued at $347,943.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,402,086 shares of company stock valued at $198,963,771 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $107.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $110.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.97.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:BX traded up $1.08 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $113.79. The company had a trading volume of 117,475,896 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,169,057. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $103.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.70. The company has a market capitalization of $80.76 billion, a PE ratio of 68.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $71.72 and a one year high of $115.19.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The asset manager reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.43 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 16.99%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 347.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.49 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 31st were paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 28th. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 191.52%.

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.