Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Capital City Trust Co. FL

Capital City Trust Co. FL lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,306 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,010 shares during the quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,589,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BX. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $124.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $173.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.80. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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 was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was 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 directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought 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 represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $175.53.

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.