Ransom Advisory Ltd Cuts Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Ransom Advisory Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,117 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 170 shares during the period. Ransom Advisory Ltd’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $915,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ascent Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 8,522 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,469,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. McAdam LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 1,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,819 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,652,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Park National Corp OH raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 2,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $349,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Finally, Nicolet Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,075 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,539,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $181.44 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $133.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.77. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $170.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $150.49.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BX shares. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.