Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,542,438 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 158,777 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $299,169,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $477,000. Serenity Investment Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth $188,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,011.3% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 130,414,132 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,345,831,000 after acquiring an additional 129,337,339 shares in the last quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 59.8% in the second quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 2,591 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the period. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 114.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 24,121 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,838,000 after purchasing an additional 12,855 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.11, for a total value of $6,619,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 516,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,911,260.87. This represents a 8.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv L.P. Blackstone bought 272,642 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were bought at an average price of $26.14 per share, for a total transaction of $7,126,861.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 8,704,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,533,512.66. This represents a 3.23% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have bought 1,611,822 shares of company stock worth $42,189,294 and have sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE:BX opened at $136.07 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $132.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $123.10. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $101.73 and a 12-month high of $190.09. 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 firm has a market cap of $102.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.56.

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, beating 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Blackstone’s revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 115.44%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Blackstone to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Citizens Jmp reduced their target price on Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.