Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Ameriflex Group Inc.

Ameriflex Group Inc. lessened its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 19.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 831 shares during the period. Ameriflex Group Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $526,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 4.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $599,872,000 after acquiring an additional 182,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $173.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $153.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued 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 net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company 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 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. 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 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. In 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. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.00.

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.