Marino Stram & Associates LLC Grows Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Marino Stram & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 14.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,270 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 402 shares during the period. Marino Stram & Associates LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Mattern Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $331,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% in the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,202,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 1.0% during the second quarter. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $980,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. McAdam LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 1,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Angeles Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,819 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,652,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 3.0%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $170.94 on Wednesday. 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 $174.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $153.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.00 billion, a PE ratio of 45.95, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. 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 currently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Barclays upped their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.71.

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.