Valmark Advisers Inc. Sells 171 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Valmark Advisers Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,804 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 171 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $498,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Marino Stram & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $484,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% in the 4th quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 39,671 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,194,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.7 %

BX opened at $122.49 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $79.92 and a one year high of $133.56. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $125.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $118.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last three months. Company 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.