Western Financial Corp CA Purchases 229 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Western Financial Corp CA increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. Western Financial Corp CA’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $699,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after purchasing an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,363,000 after buying an additional 1,943 shares during the period. Kera Capital Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 22.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.3% during the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 16,486 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, 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. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BX. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. 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 research report on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.1%

Blackstone stock opened at $175.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $129.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $174.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $152.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. 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%.

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.