Orion Capital Management LLC Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 800 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $120,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.6% in 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 buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 4.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $599,872,000 after purchasing an additional 182,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $581,886,000 after acquiring an additional 117,724 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.3%

BX stock opened at $154.55 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $170.20 and a 200-day moving average of $156.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $113.92 billion, a PE ratio of 44.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.77.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’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 sale, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on BX shares. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $166.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $195.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.26.

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.