Blackstone Inc. $BX Stake Reduced by Ameritas Advisory Services LLC

Key Points

• Ameritas Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 72.4%, holding 3,630 shares valued at $543,000 after selling 9,546 shares during the 2nd quarter.
• Several large investors, including Kingstone Capital Partners and Vanguard Group, have significantly increased their stakes in Blackstone, with Kingstone acquiring over 70 million shares valued at approximately $10.49 billion.
• Blackstone reported $1.21 EPS in its last quarterly earnings, exceeding analysts' estimates, and announced a dividend increase to $1.03 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 2.5%.

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC lowered its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 72.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,630 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 9,546 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $543,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% in 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 worth $599,872,000 after buying an additional 182,526 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $581,886,000 after acquiring an additional 117,724 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $175.53.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $166.73 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $122.90 billion, a PE ratio of 44.82, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $173.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $153.96.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors 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 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Blackstone Company 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.

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