Howard Capital Management Group LLC Sells 1,545 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Howard Capital Management Group LLC lowered its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 288,589 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,545 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up about 3.0% of Howard Capital Management Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Howard Capital Management Group LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $43,167,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BX. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $175.40 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $174.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $152.81. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $129.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders 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. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.