Romano Brothers AND Company Reduces Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Romano Brothers AND Company lowered its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 52.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,086 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,283 shares during the quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $273,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,652,526,000 after buying an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $510,355,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew 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. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 13,816.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,623,868 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,744,370,000 after buying an additional 3,597,828 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 43.9% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,877,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $736,833,000 after acquiring an additional 2,098,150 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the transaction, the director now owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on BX. TheStreet downgraded Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $118.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.92.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.7 %

NYSE:BX opened at $123.47 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $117.41. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $79.92 and a one year high of $133.56. The company has a market capitalization of $88.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.16. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.07 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.05%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 205.46%.

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.