Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,993 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,767 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $6,132,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $151,524,000. Amundi increased its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have acquired 2,565,543 shares of company stock worth $69,050,139 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Blackstone from $177.00 to $176.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.00.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.4%

Blackstone stock opened at $136.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $161.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $157.98. The company has a market capitalization of $100.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 147.43%.

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.