Corton Capital Inc. Takes $327,000 Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Corton Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,185 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $327,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Arcus Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $331,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $267,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,202,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, WNY Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $576,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, 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 transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 2,551,515 shares of company stock worth $67,038,327 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $146.45 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $107.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day moving average is $168.51 and its 200-day moving average is $156.99.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. Equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 147.43%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

About Blackstone

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.