Vontobel Holding Ltd. Trims Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 5.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,284 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 1,978 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,345 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $749,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 14,744 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,542,000 after buying an additional 621 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 65,472 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $11,289,000 after buying an additional 5,290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SPC Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $232,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX traded up $1.57 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $155.13. The stock had a trading volume of 2,048,009 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,850,287. The company has a market cap of $113.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.65. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The business has a fifty day moving average of $140.75 and a 200 day moving average of $151.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 19.83%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 112.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Blackstone from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $156.65.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 37,067 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,053,344.11. This trade represents a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 475,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.