Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by Atwood & Palmer Inc.

Key Points

• Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 3,000.0% during the second quarter, acquiring an additional 3,000 shares, bringing their total to 3,100 shares valued at $464,000.
• Blackstone's quarterly earnings report showed an EPS of $1.21, exceeding estimates, alongside a 32.7% increase in revenue year-over-year, reaching $3.07 billion.
• The company has raised its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, marking a yield of 2.3%, with a payout ratio currently at 110.75%.

Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 3,000.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,100 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Atwood & Palmer Inc.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $464,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $599,872,000 after acquiring an additional 182,526 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $581,886,000 after acquiring an additional 117,724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,109,020 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $708,477,000 after acquiring an additional 678,111 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of BX opened at $181.44 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $133.74 billion, a PE ratio of 48.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.77. 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 fifty day moving average of $170.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $150.49. 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 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 business had revenue of $3.07 billion during 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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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