Belpointe Asset Management LLC Sells 12,452 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Belpointe Asset Management LLC sold 66.3% of its shares in Blackstone Inc., reducing its holdings to 6,327 shares worth approximately $884,000.
• Blackstone recently reported quarterly earnings of $1.21 per share, exceeding expectations, with a revenue of $3.07 billion, a 32.7% year-over-year increase.
• The company increased its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, marking a dividend yield of 2.3% and a payout ratio of 110.75%.

Belpointe Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 66.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,327 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 12,452 shares during the period. Belpointe Asset Management LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi increased its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were 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 ninety days, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.4%

BX traded up $2.48 on Monday, hitting $183.83. The company had a trading volume of 2,818,409 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,392,924. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $170.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $150.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $135.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's payout ratio is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Profile

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.