Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Spire Wealth Management

Spire Wealth Management cut its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 11.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 28,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,708 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,252,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $151,524,000. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $148.79 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $169.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.58.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.71%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Citigroup cut 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.74.

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.