Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 4,236 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.11, for a total transaction of $424,065.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,311,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $131,310,582.93. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Major shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Holdings L.P. Blackstone III also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, May 5th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 8,700 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.08, for a total transaction of $827,196.00.
• On Wednesday, April 20th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 33,000 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.96, for a total transaction of $1,054,680.00.
• On Monday, April 18th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 200,000 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.00, for a total transaction of $12,400,000.00.
• On Thursday, April 14th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 6,965 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.05, for a total transaction of $662,023.25.
• On Tuesday, April 12th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 97,625 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.54, for a total transaction of $6,105,467.50.
• On Thursday, April 7th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 15,000 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.24, for a total transaction of $468,600.00.
• On Tuesday, April 5th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 18,429 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.58, for a total transaction of $1,171,715.82.
• On Friday, April 1st, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 25,200 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.38, for a total transaction of $1,546,776.00.
• On Friday, March 25th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 130,000 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.89, for a total transaction of $8,045,700.00.
• On Friday, March 11th, Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 9,629 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.21, for a total transaction of $579,762.09.

Shares of BX stock traded up $2.74 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $121.04. The company had a trading volume of 6,242,892 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,949,868. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.82 billion, a PE ratio of 16.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.38. The company’s fifty day moving average is $113.37 and its 200 day moving average is $122.56. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $91.39 and a fifty-two week high of $149.78.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 21st. The asset manager reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.47. Blackstone had a return on equity of 18.77% and a net margin of 23.77%. The company had revenue of $5.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.96 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 9th. Investors of record on Monday, May 2nd were paid a dividend of $1.32 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 29th. This represents a $5.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.36%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.93%.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BX. BNP Paribas cut shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $154.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 20th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $132.50 to $117.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 12th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $182.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.55.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. MML Investors Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.7% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 44,764 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,208,000 after purchasing an additional 1,601 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.7% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,864,659 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $333,275,000 after purchasing an additional 21,083 shares in the last quarter. Homrich & Berg grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.7% in the third quarter. Homrich & Berg now owns 7,342 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $854,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 35.9% in the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 64,473 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,342,000 after purchasing an additional 17,023 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,825,000. 63.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Blackstone (Get Rating)

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.

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