Legal & General Group Plc Sells 1,613,932 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 26.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,390,656 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,613,932 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.61% of Blackstone worth $757,037,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,032,400,000 after buying an additional 371,677 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 383,142 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $64,029,000 after acquiring an additional 3,928 shares during the period. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 78,412 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,520,000 after purchasing an additional 5,794 shares during the last quarter. Trek Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth approximately $849,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 38.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,990,238 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $515,577,000 after buying an additional 835,170 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Down 6.3 %

BX opened at $124.68 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $90.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.35, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $156.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $167.20. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.24 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.62%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on BX shares. UBS Group upgraded Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.06.

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.