Verus Capital Partners LLC Has $669,000 Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Verus Capital Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 97 shares during the period. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $669,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,244,379,000 after buying an additional 880,745 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,417,140,000 after buying an additional 1,367,581 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $708,859,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 13,816.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,623,868 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,744,370,000 after purchasing an additional 3,597,828 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.4 %

NYSE BX traded up $3.12 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $135.49. 1,390,907 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,423,945. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $96.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.50. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $123.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.14. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $88.59 and a 12-month high of $136.00.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on BX. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $143.00 to $134.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.