Select Equity Group L.P. lowered its holdings in shares of Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) by 52.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,437,465 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,612,598 shares during the period. Select Equity Group L.P. owned about 0.22% of Blackstone Group worth $70,206,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Group during the 1st quarter worth about $50,000. Welch & Forbes LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $209,000. AE Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $238,000. Field & Main Bank raised its stake in shares of Blackstone Group by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 24,275 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First National Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $243,000. Institutional investors own 53.46% of the company’s stock.
A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Blackstone Group in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Co began coverage on Blackstone Group in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. S&P Equity Research lowered Blackstone Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Citigroup lowered Blackstone Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Bank of America lowered Blackstone Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $52.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.25.
NYSE:BX traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $54.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,089,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,300,746. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.48. The company has a market capitalization of $35.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.08, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Blackstone Group LP has a twelve month low of $26.88 and a twelve month high of $55.17.
Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Blackstone Group had a return on equity of 7.61% and a net margin of 27.05%. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Blackstone Group’s revenue was down 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Group LP will post 2.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were given a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.60%. This is an increase from Blackstone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. Blackstone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.73%.
In other Blackstone Group news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 9,129,966 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.75, for a total transaction of $299,006,386.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Joan Solotar sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.83, for a total value of $1,345,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 235,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,693,275.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,887,858 shares of company stock valued at $589,315,400 over the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
About Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group L.P. is a publicly owned alternative asset manager. The firm also provides capital markets services to its clients. It provides its services to public and corporate pension funds, academic, cultural, and charitable organizations, retirees, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional and individual investors.
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