Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Director Sells $19,852,970.00 in Stock

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Joseph Baratta also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, August 5th, Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of Blackstone stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $175.40 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $129.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $153.01.

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. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current 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 dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Arcus Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.8% during the second quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $331,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,202,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WNY Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $576,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.