Sound Income Strategies LLC Sells 61 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Sound Income Strategies LLC lessened its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,392 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 61 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $208,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 132,333.3% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 3,973 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $555,000 after purchasing an additional 3,970 shares during the period. LVW Advisors LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 9.5% during the first quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 3,576 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $500,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 4.7% during the first quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 76,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,705,000 after purchasing an additional 3,440 shares during the period. Finally, Baxter Bros Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 71.5% during the first quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. now owns 14,948 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,089,000 after purchasing an additional 6,230 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of BX stock opened at $170.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $126.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.95, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $174.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $153.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS 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 paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.71.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were 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 owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Blackstone

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.