EP Wealth Advisors LLC Has $2.77 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC cut its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,108 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 290 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,773,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,442,227,000 after acquiring an additional 1,290,324 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,417,140,000 after acquiring an additional 1,367,581 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $708,859,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 13,816.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,623,868 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,744,370,000 after purchasing an additional 3,597,828 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Argus upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $127.56.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,305,632. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,305,632. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX traded up $1.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $142.00. 3,214,767 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,556,319. The company has a market cap of $101.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.49, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $125.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.77. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $88.59 and a twelve month high of $145.16.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.