Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp Reduces Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp cut its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,896 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 76 shares during the quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $750,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BX. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after buying an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $775,758,000 after acquiring an additional 141,616 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after purchasing an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $602,017,000 after purchasing an additional 61,739 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,430,909 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $525,375,000 after buying an additional 116,367 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler cut Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.1 %

BX opened at $191.09 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $110.77 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market cap of $137.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $169.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $144.86.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

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.