Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Acquired by WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC

WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC grew its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 34.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,792 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 2,010 shares during the quarter. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BX. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Blackstone from $194.00 to $188.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 9th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $180.26.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $160.57 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $171.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $155.23. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.36 billion, a PE ratio of 43.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, 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 purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the purchase, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.