Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Sells 379,548 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. reduced its position in Blackstone Inc. by 26.3%, selling 379,548 shares and owning 1,065,704 shares valued at approximately $148.97 million by the end of the last quarter.
• Insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares for a total of about $8.83 million, representing a 6.45% decrease in his ownership interest.
• Blackstone increased its quarterly dividend to $1.03 per share, yielding approximately 2.4%, up from its previous dividend of $0.93.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD decreased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 26.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,065,704 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 379,548 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.15% of Blackstone worth $148,965,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,874,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,363,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares during the period. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $1,747,000. Narwhal Capital Management raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 34.3% in the first quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,032,000 after buying an additional 16,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Heartland Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth about $794,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was 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 owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.5%

Blackstone stock traded down $0.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $171.17. 929,851 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,196,441. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $164.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $149.74. 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 current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

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.