Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Acquires 7,500 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 146,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares during the quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $22,520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BX. Redwood Financial Network Corp lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.8% during the second quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 3,588 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $537,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Obermeyer Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Obermeyer Wealth Partners now owns 2,993 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 15,116 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,583,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.5% in the third quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,578 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $270,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,748 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,194,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.79, for a total value of $3,775,461.06. Following the sale, the insider owned 899,669 shares in the company, valued at $113,169,363.51. This trade represents a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total transaction of $15,961,420.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 9,103,660 shares of company stock worth $45,982,920. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday, April 20th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.95.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of BX opened at $126.56 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $101.73 and a twelve month high of $190.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $115.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $136.94. The company has a market cap of $93.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.02. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.67% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The company had revenue of $3.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.11 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.91 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 152.43%.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.