Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Purchased by First Pacific Financial

First Pacific Financial increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,435 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 210 shares during the quarter. First Pacific Financial’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,445,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,442,227,000 after buying an additional 1,290,324 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,766,875,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546,886 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281,128 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $775,758,000 after purchasing an additional 141,616 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,670,645 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $613,581,000 after buying an additional 21,450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. Redburn Atlantic began coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Blackstone from $163.00 to $169.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $136.18.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total value of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE BX traded up $0.86 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $156.35. The stock had a trading volume of 2,614,931 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,410,287. The company has a market capitalization of $111.73 billion, a PE ratio of 55.17, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $144.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.31. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $88.59 and a twelve month high of $161.25.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.35% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The business’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 115.90%.

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.