Sandler Capital Management Lowers Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Sandler Capital Management has reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 58.1%, selling 10,530 shares during the first quarter, leaving it with approximately $1.06 million in holdings.
• Blackstone's quarterly dividend was increased from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, reflecting a annualized dividend yield of 2.4%.
• Several institutional investors, including GAMMA Investing LLC and Vanguard Group Inc., have significantly increased their positions in Blackstone, indicating strong interest among large investors.

Sandler Capital Management decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 58.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,608 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 10,530 shares during the quarter. Sandler Capital Management's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 14,608.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $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% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Amundi grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays raised their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank upgraded Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX traded up $1.84 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $175.14. The company's stock had a trading volume of 675,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,143,833. The firm has a market cap of $129.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.77. 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 50 day moving average of $168.03 and a 200-day moving average of $149.89. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for 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%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Research 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 $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. This trade 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 the SEC website. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total value of $1,597,718.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. The trade was a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.