Qtron Investments LLC Sells 3,730 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Qtron Investments LLC cut its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 44.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,589 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,730 shares during the quarter. Qtron Investments LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $641,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total value of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares in the company, valued at $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on BX. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.12.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $169.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $124.66 billion, a PE ratio of 45.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.71. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $159.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $149.62.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

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.