Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $1.01 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management reduced its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 11.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,253 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 975 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,014,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.5%

NYSE:BX opened at $170.42 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $124.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $152.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.85. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company’s revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 100.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 475,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 237 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $136.33 per share, with a total value of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 37,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $170.12.

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.