Missouri Trust & Investment Co Purchases 217 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Missouri Trust & Investment Co grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,777 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,911,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. 1248 Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $178.21 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $131.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.91, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $173.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $152.30.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

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.