Legal & General Group Plc cut its stake in Blackstone by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, leaving the firm with 4,628,508 shares worth $713,438,000, according to its most recent SEC filing. The move came as a string of smaller investors opened new positions, while an insider sale and a fresh round of analyst calls kept Blackstone in view.
Legal & General sold 49,489 shares during the quarter and still controlled 0.63% of Blackstone. Institutional investors now own 70.00% of the stock, showing how heavily the company remains in professional hands even after the latest adjustment. REAP Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in the third quarter worth $26,000, while Family CFO Inc, Ares Financial Consulting LLC and Richardson Financial Services Inc. each bought new stakes in the fourth quarter worth $28,000, $28,000 and $29,000, respectively. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC also bought a new stake in the third quarter worth $30,000.
The trading picture turned more complicated in March and May. Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,504 shares on Tuesday, March 17th at an average price of $3.51 a share, for total proceeds of $26,246,039.04. After that sale, the holder was left with 25,832 shares, a 99.66% drop in its Blackstone ownership. On Friday, May 1st, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares at an average price of $125.79, a transaction valued at $3,775,461.06. Afterward, Sawhney directly owned 899,669 shares, down 3.23% from before the sale.
Over the past 90 days, insiders bought 12,355,303 shares valued at $264,789,896 and sold 9,128,660 shares valued at $46,457,920. That leaves corporate insiders with 1.00% of Blackstone stock, a small slice compared with the broader institutional base. The company also remained the subject of shifting price targets: UBS Group cut its target from $171.00 to $137.00 and assigned a neutral rating on Friday, February 20th; HSBC lowered its target from $164.00 to $131.00 and set a hold rating on Friday, April 10th; BMO Capital Markets lifted its target from $126.00 to $132.00 and kept an outperform rating on Monday, April 13th; Citizens Jmp trimmed its target from $195.00 to $190.00 and maintained a market outperform rating on Wednesday, April 22nd; and The Goldman Sachs Group reduced its target from $118.00 to $116.00 and assigned a neutral rating on Friday, April 24th.
Altogether, the latest filings point to a stock that is still deeply held by institutions, but one where ownership, insider activity and analyst sentiment are all moving at once. With 11 analysts rating Blackstone a Buy, 11 rating it Hold and one rating it Sell, the market message is not a clean one, and that is exactly the point: investors are still sorting out what Blackstone is worth now.
