RiverPark Advisors LLC Lowers Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

RiverPark Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 19.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,925 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,673 shares during the period. Blackstone accounts for 1.9% of RiverPark Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. RiverPark Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC now owns 28,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,295,000 after acquiring an additional 1,669 shares during the last quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc increased its stake in Blackstone by 202.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 6,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $926,000 after acquiring an additional 4,050 shares during the last quarter. River Street Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 14,889 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,280,000 after acquiring an additional 614 shares during the last quarter. RIA Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $260,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 61.4% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 329,139 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $50,401,000 after purchasing an additional 125,264 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $181.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $130.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $102.79 and a 1-year high of $184.34. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $161.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $140.18.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone 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.