Diversified Portfolios Inc. Purchases Shares of 1,504 Blackstone Inc. $BX

Diversified Portfolios Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,504 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Family CFO Inc acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director James Breyer purchased 13,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $143.86 per share, with a total value of $1,999,654.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 68,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,912,817.16. The trade was a 25.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 2,565,543 shares of company stock valued at $69,050,139. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Blackstone from $177.00 to $176.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $178.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.00.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:BX opened at $136.54 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $100.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $161.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $157.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

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.