Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,099 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 459 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,846,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 763.0% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 233 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Family CFO Inc purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group upped their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Citigroup lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $118.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the purchase, the director now owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $118.40 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $84.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.70, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $79.92 and a one year high of $133.56. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 205.46%.

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.