Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 4,351 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Vontobel Holding Ltd. decreased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 13.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,933 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,351 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its stake in Blackstone by 5.4% in the second quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 35,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,321,000 after buying an additional 1,835 shares during the period. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 24.5% in the second quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 6,573 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $983,000 after buying an additional 1,294 shares during the period. Narwhal Capital Management lifted its stake in Blackstone by 8.3% in the second quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 69,983 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,468,000 after buying an additional 5,369 shares during the period. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 4.3% in the second quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 12,053 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,803,000 after buying an additional 496 shares during the period. Finally, Sax Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 35.0% in the second quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,199 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,226,000 after buying an additional 2,124 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 4.2%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $153.88 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $172.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $154.17. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $113.42 billion, a PE ratio of 41.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 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.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%. On average, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.22 per share, with a total value of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on BX. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.00.

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.