Ignite Planners LLC Sells 1,570 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Ignite Planners LLC reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 53.5%, selling 1,570 shares, leaving them with 1,364 shares valued at $204,000.
• Blackstone reported quarterly earnings of $1.21 EPS, surpassing estimates of $1.10, with revenue rising 32.7% year-over-year to $3.07 billion.
• The company announced a dividend increase to $1.03 from the previous $0.93, resulting in an annualized dividend of $4.12 and a yield of 2.6%.

Ignite Planners LLC lessened its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 53.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,364 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 1,570 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth about $151,524,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $160.52 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $172.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $154.15. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.32 billion, a PE ratio of 43.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $194.00 to $188.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $171.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of 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 shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $179.00.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 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.

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