Financial Advocates Investment Management Has $532,000 Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Financial Advocates Investment Management trimmed its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 49.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,555 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,426 shares during the quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $532,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 118.1% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 410 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $914,000. First Foundation Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 2,423 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the period. Finally, Vestcor Inc raised its stake in Blackstone by 99.1% in the 1st quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 26,370 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,686,000 after acquiring an additional 13,126 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director James Breyer bought 13,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $143.86 per share, with a total value of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 68,906 shares in the company, valued at $9,912,817.16. The trade was a 25.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders acquired a total of 2,950,751 shares of company stock valued at $79,050,138 over the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $145.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.75. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $194.23. The company has a market cap of $107.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.44, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $156.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $158.02.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on BX. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $195.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.00.

Blackstone 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.