Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Buys 173 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,963 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 173 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,043,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.6% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 125,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,473,000 after acquiring an additional 3,159 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.8% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 182,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $18,842,000 after buying an additional 47,097 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Blackstone by 112.3% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 188,281 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $20,172,000 after acquiring an additional 99,574 shares in the last quarter. NBT Bank N A NY purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth $614,000. Finally, Advisor Partners II LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the third quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 12,410 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,738 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America dropped their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.7 %

Blackstone stock traded down $2.10 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $119.40. The stock had a trading volume of 922,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,651,371. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $124.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $119.45. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $80.05 and a 52 week high of $133.56. The company has a market cap of $85.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.94, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.52.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,773,399.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.