Centaurus Financial Inc. Takes $3.48 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Centaurus Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 29,541 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $3,476,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $8,667,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 100,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,561,000 after acquiring an additional 8,321 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,340,000. Marble Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $7,303,000. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 92.2% in the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 807,184 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $92,817,000 after purchasing an additional 387,109 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $136.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Blackstone in a research note on Monday, June 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Blackstone from $119.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings raised Blackstone from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Blackstone to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $149.43.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.78, for a total value of $28,264,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 19,374 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,233.72. This trade represents a 99.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 765,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $26.14 per share, for a total transaction of $20,000,001.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,882,145 shares in the company, valued at approximately $206,039,270.30. This represents a 10.75% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase 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 owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of BX stock opened at $143.62 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.56. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $101.73 and a 12-month high of $190.09. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $130.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $122.78.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $5.04 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 115.44%.

Blackstone 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.