BSW Wealth Partners Boosts Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

BSW Wealth Partners raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the quarter. BSW Wealth Partners’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $909,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,874,000 after acquiring an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 22.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182 shares during the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management lifted its position in Blackstone by 34.3% in the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,032,000 after buying an additional 16,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 14.5% in the first quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 14,708 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,056,000 after buying an additional 1,863 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. This represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the company’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $168.22 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.22, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $174.23 and a 200 day moving average of $153.48.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

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.