Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Acquires 12,800 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 206,498 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,800 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $31,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of BX. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 9.3% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $310,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. United Bank raised its stake in Blackstone by 14.7% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,024,000 after buying an additional 1,729 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the second quarter worth $1,124,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.9% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 452,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $67,703,000 after buying an additional 8,655 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.79, for a total transaction of $3,775,461.06. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 899,669 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,169,363.51. This represents a 3.23% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 9,103,660 shares of company stock worth $45,982,920 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Argus lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $163.00 to $146.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 20th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Zacks Research cut shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $150.95.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $124.78 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $116.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $136.41. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $101.73 and a 1 year high of $190.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $3.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.11 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.67%.

Blackstone Profile

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.