GAMMA Investing LLC Raises Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 16.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,318 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 737 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $658,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwest Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% in the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Roble Belko & Company Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Advantage Trust Co purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX traded down $3.26 during trading on Monday, reaching $129.79. 4,607,528 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,561,911. The company has a market cap of $92.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $88.59 and a 1-year high of $145.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $127.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $125.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.90%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. UBS Group raised their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $127.56.

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.