Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Key Points

• Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 65.4% during the first quarter, owning only 951 shares after selling 1,800 shares.
• Major shareholders, including Vanguard Group Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., have increased their positions in Blackstone, with Vanguard now owning over 67 million shares valued at approximately $9.5 billion.
• Blackstone recently reported a quarterly EPS of $1.21, indicating strong revenue growth of 32.7% year-over-year and a boosted dividend payment of $1.03 due on August 11th.

Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC cut its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 65.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 951 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 1,800 shares during the quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $133,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of BX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Blackstone by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,209,707,000 after acquiring an additional 681,512 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,195,551 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $895,817,000 after acquiring an additional 144,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake 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. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $170.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone bought 1,189,532 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.22 per share, with a total value of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly 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. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BX traded up $1.55 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $170.46. The company had a trading volume of 780,837 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,233,026. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $155.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $150.04. The stock has a market cap of $124.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 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.