Simplicity Wealth LLC Takes Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Simplicity Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,292 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $642,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $599,872,000 after buying an additional 182,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $164.83 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $121.50 billion, a PE ratio of 44.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $173.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $154.03. 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 (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (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 firm 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 business’s revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.83.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.