Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. Trims Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. reduced its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 1.7%, owning 174,280 shares worth approximately $26 million as of the last quarter.
• Several major investors, including Vanguard and Goldman Sachs, have increased their stakes in Blackstone, highlighting strong institutional interest, with 70% of the company currently held by institutional investors.
• Blackstone recently reported a 32.7% year-over-year revenue increase to $3.07 billion and announced a rise in its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share.

Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. cut its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 174,280 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 2,931 shares during the quarter. Blackstone accounts for about 1.9% of Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $26,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% during the first 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 last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% during the first 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 last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 4.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 182,526 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 valued at $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,109,020 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $708,477,000 after buying an additional 678,111 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $181.44 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $133.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 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. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The stock's fifty day moving average is $170.04 and its 200-day moving average is $150.59.

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, topping 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 firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Blackstone's payout ratio 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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