DnB Asset Management AS Sells 17,689 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

DnB Asset Management AS trimmed its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 197,679 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 17,689 shares during the quarter. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $18,378,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,568,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. AXS Investments LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth $47,000. 63.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, CAO David Payne sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.22, for a total transaction of $1,032,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 53,281 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,499,664.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO David Payne sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.22, for a total transaction of $1,032,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 53,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,499,664.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 85,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.08, for a total value of $7,911,800.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,060,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $98,706,499.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,402,086 shares of company stock worth $198,963,771. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $112.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $80.00 billion, a PE ratio of 68.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.72 and a fifty-two week high of $114.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The asset manager reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. Blackstone had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 17.92%. The firm had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.49 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 347.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 31st were paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 191.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $111.00 in a report on Friday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $104.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. TheStreet upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Thursday, July 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $98.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $107.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.97.

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.