Pingora Partners LLC Sells 250 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Pingora Partners LLC reduced its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 26.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 700 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Pingora Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $98,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BX. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $169.94 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $125.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.77. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $167.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $150.00. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released 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 firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for 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 for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

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.