LGT Capital Partners LTD. Sells 24,200 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

LGT Capital Partners LTD. trimmed its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 207,800 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 24,200 shares during the quarter. LGT Capital Partners LTD.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $31,820,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 25.4% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 3,885 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $510,000 after acquiring an additional 786 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 232.8% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,158 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $151,000 after buying an additional 810 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 23.7% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 41,149 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $5,406,000 after buying an additional 7,890 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its position in Blackstone by 188.6% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 16,998 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 11,108 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Blackstone by 22.1% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 554,268 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $68,731,000 after buying an additional 100,183 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BX. Barclays upped their target price on Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.0 %

BX stock traded up $1.90 on Tuesday, hitting $184.91. 1,645,837 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,403,390. The business's fifty day moving average is $162.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $140.80. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $104.39 and a twelve month high of $186.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.86 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company's stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 387,137 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.