IVC Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 184 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

IVC Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 184 shares during the quarter. IVC Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 6,500.0% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,828 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 3,770 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 11,512 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,233,000 after acquiring an additional 1,661 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth about $573,000. Logan Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth about $321,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Blackstone by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 288,436 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,903,000 after acquiring an additional 27,534 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price target (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX traded up $0.19 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $123.40. The company had a trading volume of 2,102,444 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,471,180. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $88.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.60, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $122.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.45. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $88.59 and a one year high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. Blackstone’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued 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 2.69%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 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.