Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB

Key Points

• MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 1,294.5% during the 2nd quarter, owning 51,414 shares valued at approximately $7.69 million.
• Insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares at an average price of $173.64, resulting in a 6.45% decrease in his ownership, while corporate insiders collectively sold over 16.8 million shares during the last quarter.
• Blackstone recently increased its quarterly dividend to $1.03 per share, up from $0.93, and reported a 32.7% year-over-year revenue increase with Q2 earnings per share exceeding expectations.

MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 1,294.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 51,414 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 47,727 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB's holdings in Blackstone were worth $7,691,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $183.83 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $170.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $150.65. The company has a market cap 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Evercore ISI boosted 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. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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 assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

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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