Dearborn Partners LLC Buys New Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Dearborn Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,494 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,207,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ares Financial Consulting LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Addison Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Strive Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Palladiem LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 371 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The stock was bought at an average price of $137.17 per share, with a total value of $50,890.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 42,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,787,065.13. The trade was a 0.89% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.55, for a total value of $4,066,500.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 869,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $117,883,632.95. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 1,611,822 shares of company stock valued at $42,189,294 and have sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on BX. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $119.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp cut their price objective on Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings raised Blackstone from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.95.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.2%

BX stock opened at $143.66 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The business has a 50 day moving average of $129.20 and a 200 day moving average of $122.50. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $101.73 and a twelve month high of $190.09. The firm has a market cap of $107.83 billion, a PE ratio of 32.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.55.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $5.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.42 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 21.84%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.44%.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.