Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Stake Boosted by Herbst Group LLC

Herbst Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,950 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 350 shares during the period. Herbst Group LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,576,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Tower Bridge Advisors lifted its position in Blackstone by 12.0% in the first quarter. Tower Bridge Advisors now owns 17,324 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,850 shares during the period. Advisor OS LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 7.0% in the first quarter. Advisor OS LLC now owns 8,666 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $761,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter worth approximately $240,000. Old North State Trust LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 7.3% in the first quarter. Old North State Trust LLC now owns 5,966 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $524,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares during the period. Finally, Northside Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter worth approximately $202,000. 63.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director William G. Parrett sold 3,874 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.47, for a total value of $435,708.78. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,941 shares in the company, valued at $3,479,934.27. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director William G. Parrett sold 3,874 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.47, for a total value of $435,708.78. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,941 shares in the company, valued at $3,479,934.27. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings I/Ii Gp L. Blackstone sold 14,704,603 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.98, for a total transaction of $117,342,731.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,943.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,402,086 shares of company stock worth $198,963,771 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE BX traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $114.35. The company had a trading volume of 798,190 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,163,542. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.72 and a twelve month high of $115.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.16 billion, a PE ratio of 69.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $103.78 and its 200-day moving average is $92.72.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The asset manager reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 16.99%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 347.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.49 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 31st were issued a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 191.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on Blackstone from $105.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Blackstone from $110.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Blackstone from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $107.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Blackstone from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $110.97.

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.