Anchor Investment Management LLC Purchases 6,500 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Anchor Investment Management LLC has significantly increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 275.4%, purchasing 6,500 additional shares to reach a total of 8,860 shares valued at $1,238,000.
• Blackstone Inc. reported quarterly earnings of $1.21 per share, exceeding the consensus estimate of $1.10, with revenue growth of 32.7% year-over-year.
• The company's recent dividend was raised from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, translating to an annualized payout of $4.12 and a dividend yield of 2.3%.

Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 275.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,860 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 14,608.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. Barclays lifted their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Up 3.0%

Blackstone stock opened at $178.34 on Thursday. 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 business's 50-day simple moving average is $168.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $150.24. The company has a market cap of $131.46 billion, a PE ratio of 47.94, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

About Blackstone

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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