Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Raises Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,406 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,858 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $11,130,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in 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 worth $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $156.37 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $171.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $154.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $115.26 billion, a PE ratio of 42.03, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone 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 trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Blackstone from $194.00 to $188.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Bank of America cut their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. JMP Securities increased their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.