LRI Investments LLC Trims Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

LRI Investments LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,696 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 369 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,002,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SPC Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter valued at approximately $202,000. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 18.9% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 52,843 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,904,000 after buying an additional 8,410 shares during the last quarter. Means Investment CO. Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 0.5% during the second quarter. Means Investment CO. Inc. now owns 16,594 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,482,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 9.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 86,892 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,006,000 after purchasing an additional 7,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sather Financial Group Inc increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 20.1% in the second quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 2,401 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $359,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” 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 company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $171.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.00.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $153.88 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $172.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $154.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. Analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Blackstone Company 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.