Summit Securities Group LLC Invests $419,000 in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 3,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $419,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped 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. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone bought 1,189,532 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. This trade represents a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $171.61 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 0.75, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $159.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.49 billion, a PE ratio of 46.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company 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 is a positive change 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 2.4%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

About Blackstone

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.