Archford Capital Strategies LLC Invests $353,000 in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Archford Capital Strategies LLC invested $353,000 in Blackstone Inc., acquiring 2,357 shares in the second quarter, marking their first stake in the company.
• Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares for approximately $19.85 million, reducing his ownership in Blackstone by nearly 14%.
• Blackstone has recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, reflecting a yield of 2.3% and a payout ratio of 110.75%.

Archford Capital Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,357 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $353,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 1.6% in the first 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 last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi lifted its position in Blackstone by 69.3% in the first 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 last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were 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 quarter, insiders have bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective 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. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.71.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.4%

BX stock opened at $175.99 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $129.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company's 50-day moving average price is $174.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $153.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm's revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Blackstone 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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