FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Boosts Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH lifted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 153.3% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,301 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,603 shares during the period. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 43.2% in the 2nd quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,783 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,142 shares during the period. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 226.3% during the second quarter. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC now owns 5,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $765,000 after buying an additional 3,546 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 11.2% in the second quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,981 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. First County Bank CT boosted its position in Blackstone by 121.5% during the 2nd quarter. First County Bank CT now owns 4,453 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,443 shares during the period. Finally, Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 0.3% in the second quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC now owns 278,874 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $41,714,000 after purchasing an additional 908 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $175.40 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $129.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $174.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.01. 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.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders 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 positive change 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 currently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $25.22 per share, with a total value of $29,999,997.04. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.