New Vernon Investment Management LLC Has $1.85 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• New Vernon Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 20.0%, owning 13,201 shares after purchasing an additional 2,201 shares, making it the firm's 15th largest holding.
• Blackstone reported a quarterly earnings per share of $1.21, exceeding the estimate of $1.10, with a revenue of $3.07 billion, representing a 32.7% increase compared to the previous year.
• Blackstone recently declared an increased quarterly dividend of $1.03, which represents an annual yield of 2.4% and has a current dividend payout ratio of 110.75%.

New Vernon Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 20.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,201 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 2,201 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up about 2.5% of New Vernon Investment Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. New Vernon Investment Management LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,845,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted 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 during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 136.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,270,233 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $177,544,000 after acquiring an additional 734,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE BX traded down $1.86 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $169.54. The stock had a trading volume of 3,511,982 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,198,786. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $165.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $149.68. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. 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 company has a market capitalization of $124.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.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 company earned $0.98 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal 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 $1.03 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. This represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

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.