Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Sells 11,753 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Key Points

• Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC sold 11,753 shares of Blackstone Inc., reducing its holdings by 34.9% to 21,879 shares valued at approximately $3.06 million.
• The firm recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, increasing from the previous $0.93, with a current annual yield of 2.32%.
• Blackstone reported earnings of $1.21 per share for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, and its revenue grew 32.7% year-over-year to $3.07 billion.

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 34.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,879 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 11,753 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,058,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $974,448,000. Capital Research Global Investors bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $239,837,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $184,873,000 after buying an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 38.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,990,238 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $515,577,000 after buying an additional 835,170 shares during the period. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 1,984,892 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $342,235,000 after purchasing an additional 753,766 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the transaction, the director owned 37,067 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 475,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at $65,819,775.92. This represents a 5.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 2,849,769 shares of company stock worth $54,932,307. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays reiterated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Blackstone from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $162.18.

Blackstone Trading Up 3.5%

Shares of BX stock opened at $177.97 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $129.85 billion, a PE ratio of 53.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.65. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $148.47 and a 200 day moving average of $150.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be given 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 yield of 2.32%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is presently 112.05%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.