State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Decreases Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• The State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 8.0%, selling 21,085 shares, and now owns 242,428 shares worth approximately $33.9 million.
• Insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares for about $8.83 million, representing a 6.45% reduction in his position, while another major shareholder increased their holdings significantly.
• Blackstone recently raised its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, indicating a strong commitment to returning capital to shareholders, despite a payout ratio of 110.75%.

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 8.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 242,428 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 21,085 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D's holdings in Blackstone were worth $33,887,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $170.12.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.8%

BX stock traded down $2.9660 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $164.3240. 3,054,590 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,237,021. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $160.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $149.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.12 billion, a PE ratio of 44.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was 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 hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.