Sanders Morris Harris LLC Sells 17,398 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Sanders Morris Harris LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 517,428 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 17,398 shares during the period. Blackstone makes up about 13.1% of Sanders Morris Harris LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Sanders Morris Harris LLC owned 0.07% of Blackstone worth $79,234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 56.3% in the third quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 733 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co grew its holdings in Blackstone by 11.1% during the third quarter. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co now owns 4,201 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $643,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the period. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 66.7% during the third quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 34,983 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,357,000 after purchasing an additional 13,997 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its position in Blackstone by 23.2% during the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 7,324 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,092,000 after acquiring an additional 1,377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 5.2% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 40,876 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,259,000 after acquiring an additional 2,031 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on BX. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Blackstone from $145.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $133.41.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total transaction of $4,610,900.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $148.09 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $161.25. The company has a market cap of $105.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.44, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $143.08 and a 200 day moving average of $131.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.93 EPS. Blackstone’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.90%.

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.