Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by ARS Investment Partners LLC

ARS Investment Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 98,773 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,648 shares during the quarter. Blackstone comprises approximately 1.4% of ARS Investment Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $13,806,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its position in Blackstone by 105.4% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,874,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $63,109,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 6.6% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $1,747,000. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 34.3% in the first quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,032,000 after buying an additional 16,486 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $167.0650 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $123.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.91, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $160.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $170.12.

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.