Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC

Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC raised its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,714 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 158 shares during the quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $556,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Family CFO Inc purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $195.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.84.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $154.55 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $170.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $155.77. The firm has a market cap of $113.92 billion, a PE ratio of 44.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 117.71%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $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.