9,226 Shares in Blackstone Inc. $BX Purchased by Portfolio Design Labs LLC

Portfolio Design Labs LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 9,226 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,086,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 9.3% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. United Bank increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14.7% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,024,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729 shares during the period. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,124,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Blackstone by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 452,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $67,703,000 after purchasing an additional 8,655 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $139.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Argus boosted their price target on Blackstone from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, HSBC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.95.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 573,614 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $15,000,006.10. Following the transaction, the insider owned 8,455,758 shares in the company, valued at $221,118,071.70. The trade was a 7.28% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.55, for a total transaction of $4,066,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 869,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $117,883,632.95. The trade was a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 1,339,180 shares of company stock worth $35,062,433 and have sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $141.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $106.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.66, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.56. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $101.73 and a 1-year high of $190.09. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $128.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.42 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 21.84%.The company’s revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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