Sapient Capital LLC Has $562,000 Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Sapient Capital LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 22.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,280 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,230 shares during the quarter. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $562,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,972,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,244,379,000 after buying an additional 880,745 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Blackstone by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,738,986 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,417,140,000 after buying an additional 1,367,581 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,588,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744,652 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Blackstone by 43.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,877,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $736,833,000 after purchasing an additional 2,098,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,429,749 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $841,783,000 after purchasing an additional 322,860 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on BX. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group increased their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX traded down $4.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $116.60. The stock had a trading volume of 4,328,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,677,235. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56. The stock has a market cap of $83.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.20, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $125.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during 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%. Blackstone’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 117.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $127.08 per share, with a total value of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 34,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.