Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by Krilogy Financial LLC

Key Points

• Krilogy Financial LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 21.1% during the second quarter, owning a total of 22,325 shares valued at approximately $3.34 million.
• Significant insider activity includes the sale of 16.7 million shares by major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc, totaling over $104 million, while insiders have sold a total of 16.9 million shares in recent months.
• Blackstone recently raised its quarterly dividend to $1.03, reflecting an annual yield of 2.2%, with a payout ratio of 110.75%.

Krilogy Financial LLC raised its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 21.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 22,325 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BX. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $184,873,000 after buying an additional 1,313,606 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $151,524,000. Amundi raised its holdings 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 in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, 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. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of BX stock opened at $183.83 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $170.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $150.65. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $135.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.42, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.77. 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 announced its 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. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

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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