Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 93,725 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 6,015 shares during the quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $11,029,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 100,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $15,561,000 after buying an additional 8,321 shares during the last quarter. Greenup Street Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1,034.3% in the 4th quarter. Greenup Street Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,940 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,149,000 after buying an additional 12,711 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its holdings in Blackstone by 92.2% in the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 807,184 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $92,817,000 after buying an additional 387,109 shares in the last quarter. Benson Investment Management Company Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $5,856,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,667,695 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,046,859,000 after purchasing an additional 840,258 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Zacks Research upgraded Blackstone from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Argus boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Citizens Jmp cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.95.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of BX opened at $137.17 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $101.73 and a 52-week high of $190.09. The stock has a market cap of $101.90 billion, a PE ratio of 30.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.56. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $122.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.18. Blackstone had a net margin of 21.84% and a return on equity of 23.77%. The business had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 115.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 573,614 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $26.15 per share, with a total value of $15,000,006.10. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 8,455,758 shares in the company, valued at $221,118,071.70. This trade represents a 7.28% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of $123.04 per share, with a total value of $43,679.20. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 41,818 shares in the company, valued at $5,145,286.72. This represents a 0.86% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders bought a total of 10,825,959 shares of company stock worth $224,789,900 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.