Bank OZK Acquires 2,808 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Bank OZK lifted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 20.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,817 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,808 shares during the quarter. Bank OZK’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $28,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.5%

Blackstone stock opened at $169.13 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.66 billion, a PE ratio of 45.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.71. The company’s 50-day moving average is $159.63 and its 200-day moving average is $149.62. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $170.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. The trade was a 14.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Company 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.