Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Purchases New Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 1,750 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $262,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,451 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 15.4% during the second quarter. Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. now owns 8,820 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,319,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares during the last quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,202,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Western Financial Corp CA grew its holdings in Blackstone by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Western Financial Corp CA now owns 4,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $699,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LVW Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.8% during the second quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 3,785 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased 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. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.71.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.4%

BX opened at $175.99 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $129.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $174.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $153.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Analysts predict 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, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

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.