Savvy Advisors Inc. Buys 3,924 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Savvy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 46.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 12,293 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,924 shares during the period. Savvy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Kera Capital Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at approximately $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 22.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182 shares during the period. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth $423,000. Redmond Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 21.2% during the 2nd quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC now owns 18,785 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,810,000 after purchasing an additional 3,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. raised its stake in Blackstone by 14.5% in the first quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 14,708 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,056,000 after buying an additional 1,863 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on BX. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $177.00 to $176.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.74.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $148.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $109.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $168.98 and a 200 day moving average of $156.52.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 147.43%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 sale, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.