Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC

WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 34.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,792 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,010 shares during the period. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,166,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $599,872,000 after purchasing an additional 182,526 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $581,886,000 after purchasing an additional 117,724 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $160.57 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $118.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.16, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.77. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $171.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $155.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on BX. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $180.26.

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.