Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by NTV Asset Management LLC

NTV Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,927 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. NTV Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $887,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $599,872,000 after buying an additional 182,526 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.1%

BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. 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 $124.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.27, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $173.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Blackstone in a report on Friday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 price target on the stock. JMP Securities upped their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued 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 a consensus target price of $176.00.

About Blackstone

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.