Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by Smith Salley Wealth Management

Key Points

• Smith Salley Wealth Management increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 36.4%, now owning 12,389 shares valued at approximately $1.85 million after buying an additional 3,306 shares in the 2nd quarter.
• Blackstone has announced a quarterly dividend of $1.03, up from $0.93, reflecting a dividend yield of 2.3%, despite a high dividend payout ratio of 110.75%.
• Analyst ratings for Blackstone include nine "Buy" ratings and eight "Hold" ratings, with a current average target price of $172.38 following recent adjustments from firms like Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs.

Smith Salley Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 36.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,389 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 3,306 shares during the period. Smith Salley Wealth Management's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,853,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BX. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,035 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. BTC Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,505 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $210,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,566 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $219,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,459 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,182,000 after buying an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of BX opened at $175.40 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $174.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $153.01. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $1.03 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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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