Vontobel Holding Ltd. Decreases Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.6% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 33,284 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,978 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $316,257,000. Capital Research Global Investors bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $239,837,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on BX. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup cut their target price on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $155.13 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $140.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.62. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $113.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.72, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its 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). The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 19.84%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 112.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 475,336 shares in the company, valued at $65,819,775.92. This represents a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone acquired 1,660,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $15.00 per share, for a total transaction of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 1,666,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,005. This represents a 24,898.76% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.