AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs Buys Shares of 26,805 Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs acquired 26,805 shares of Blackstone Inc. valued at approximately $3.72 million in the first quarter.
• Insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares at an average price of $173.64, reducing his stake by 6.45%.
• Blackstone announced a quarterly dividend of $1.03, raised from the previous $0.93, with a current annualized yield of 2.2%.

AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 26,805 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $3,719,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. This represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $183.91 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $169.51 and a 200-day moving average of $150.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $135.56 billion, a PE ratio of 49.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

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.

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