Park Avenue Securities LLC Has $2.52 Million Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 17.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,328 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,953 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,517,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bay Rivers Group boosted its stake in Blackstone by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Bay Rivers Group now owns 19,853 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,608,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its position in Blackstone by 1.9% during the first quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,556 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $931,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc increased its position in Blackstone by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc now owns 3,344 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $414,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fragasso Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the first quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 3,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $428,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, insider Joseph Baratta 4,987 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.2 %

BX stock traded up $1.56 during trading on Thursday, hitting $129.15. The company had a trading volume of 260,178 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,546,125. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $88.59 and a 52-week high of $145.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.08, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $127.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $125.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were given a dividend of $0.82 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.90%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BX. UBS Group increased their price target on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $127.56.

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.