Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Decreases Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,024 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,098,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd 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 purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $151,524,000. Amundi grew its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position 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 worth $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director James Breyer bought 13,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $143.86 per share, for a total transaction of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 68,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,912,817.16. This represents a 25.27% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the insider owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,565,415 shares of company stock valued at $69,037,981 and sold 16,875,234 shares valued at $136,847,628. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.6%

BX stock opened at $143.50 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $105.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $166.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $156.99. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 147.43%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BX. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Blackstone from $177.00 to $176.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.