Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Has $589,000 Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,939 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $589,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter worth $30,000. Finally, von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter worth $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.22 per share, with a total value of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective 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. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.71.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of BX opened at $166.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $174.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $153.61. The firm has a market cap of $122.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio 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.