Steamboat Capital Partners LLC Sells 488 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Steamboat Capital Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,980 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 488 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up about 1.3% of Steamboat Capital Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Steamboat Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 237 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at $65,819,775.92. This trade represents a 5.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have bought 1,660,538 shares of company stock worth $24,981,930 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on BX. Citigroup reduced their price target on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Blackstone from $160.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday, April 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.82.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $146.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $137.25 and a 200-day moving average of $161.48.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were given a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.05%.

Blackstone 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.