SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC Trims Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 9.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,384 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,488 shares during the quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,758,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after buying an additional 332,962 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 13.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,588,433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,744,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $695,952,000 after buying an additional 522,561 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Blackstone from $91.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.53.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock traded up $0.49 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $131.38. 3,132,485 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,809,886. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.29 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The company has a market cap of $93.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $125.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $116.00.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.48 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.07 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 2nd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 205.46%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 stock was 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 directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.