IFC Advisors LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

by · The Cerbat Gem

IFC Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX – Free Report) by 0.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,792 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 128 shares during the period. IFC Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,512,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% during the first 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 in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the first 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 purchasing an additional 182,526 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $581,886,000 after purchasing an additional 117,724 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $194.00 to $188.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.06.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on BX

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 three months, insiders acquired 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 insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $158.13 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $172.29 and a 200-day moving average of $154.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.51, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a boost 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%.

About Blackstone

(Free Report)

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.

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