Atria Investments Inc Lowers Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Key Points

• Atria Investments Inc reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 7.2% in Q1, ending the quarter with 78,001 shares valued at approximately $10.9 million.
• Blackstone recently reported EPS of $1.21, surpassing estimates, and demonstrated a 32.7% increase in revenue year-over-year, leading to a net margin of 20.83%.
• The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03, increasing from the previous dividend of $0.93, with a resultant yield of 2.32%.

Atria Investments Inc cut its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 7.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 78,001 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 6,088 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc's holdings in Blackstone were worth $10,903,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Principle Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 31.0% in the 1st quarter. Principle Wealth Partners LLC now owns 23,782 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,324,000 after acquiring an additional 5,625 shares during the period. Advisor OS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Advisor OS LLC now owns 3,479 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $486,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 4,393 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $614,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 39,462 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $5,516,000 after purchasing an additional 1,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carnegie Investment Counsel boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1,784.4% in the 1st quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 28,944 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,046,000 after purchasing an additional 27,408 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $178.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 666,257 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,301,543. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.65. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The company's 50-day moving average is $149.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $150.35.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The company 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%. Blackstone'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 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's payout ratio is 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $168.71.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the purchase, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 37,067 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This represents a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have purchased a total of 2,849,769 shares of company stock valued at $54,932,307 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.