Embree Financial Group Purchases 1,234 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Embree Financial Group increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 64,284 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,234 shares during the quarter. Blackstone accounts for 1.4% of Embree Financial Group’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Embree Financial Group’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $9,616,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $175.86 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $152.55. The stock has a market cap of $129.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.77.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.38.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. 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.