Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Grows Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,595 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $388,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 4.2%

NYSE BX opened at $153.88 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $113.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $172.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $154.28. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.00.

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.