Promethium Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Promethium Advisors LLC significantly cut its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 83.2%, reducing its holdings to 1,520 shares valued at approximately $212,000.
• In contrast, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position by an astounding 14,608.6%, owning now over 1.3 million shares valued at nearly $185 million.
• Blackstone recently raised its quarterly dividend to $1.03 per share, up from $0.93, with a current annual yield of 2.4% and a payout ratio of 110.75%.

Promethium Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 83.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,520 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 7,543 shares during the period. Promethium Advisors LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $212,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 16.3% in 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 last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in Blackstone by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,195,551 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $895,817,000 after acquiring an additional 144,926 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 117,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 19.8% during 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 worth $708,477,000 after purchasing an additional 678,111 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Dbs Bank upgraded Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NYSE BX traded up $2.51 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $169.85. 2,547,927 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,316,451. The company has a market cap of $125.19 billion, a PE ratio of 45.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $167.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $149.97. 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 (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 222 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $170.29 per share, with a total value of $37,804.38. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 38,753 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,599,248.37. This trade represents a 0.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, 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. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.