BSW Wealth Partners Acquires 116 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

BSW Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the quarter. BSW Wealth Partners’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 132,333.3% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 3,973 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $555,000 after acquiring an additional 3,970 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 37,337 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,285 shares in the last quarter. Benin Management CORP increased its stake in Blackstone by 19.6% during the 1st quarter. Benin Management CORP now owns 1,675 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $234,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northside Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 7.2% during the first quarter. Northside Capital Management LLC now owns 2,193 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $306,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $168.22 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $124.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $153.48. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price 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. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.71.

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.