Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management inc. Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 12,897 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,483,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Redwood Financial Network Corp lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 3,588 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $537,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Zacks Investment Management grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 3,453 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $590,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Brogan Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.5% during the third quarter. Brogan Financial Inc. now owns 2,904 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $496,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 3,997 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Founders Financial Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Founders Financial Securities LLC now owns 1,928 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $297,000 after buying an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.11, for a total transaction of $6,619,950.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 516,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,911,260.87. This trade represents a 8.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.23, for a total transaction of $1,379,685.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 64,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,359,783.04. This represents a 12.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 1,611,822 shares of company stock worth $42,189,294 and sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $143.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $107.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.13, a PEG 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 has a fifty day moving average price of $130.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.78.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on BX. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Zacks Research upgraded Blackstone from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $149.43.

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.