Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. Acquires 1,177 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. raised its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 15.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,820 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,177 shares during the period. Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,319,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% during the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,202,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Western Financial Corp CA boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.2% in the second quarter. Western Financial Corp CA now owns 4,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $699,000 after buying an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. LVW Advisors LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 5.8% in the second quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 3,785 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 12.0% in the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 7,586 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after acquiring an additional 812 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 26,365 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,944,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $175.40 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $129.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $174.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $152.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

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.