Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC

Key Points

• Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC reduced its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 38.4%, selling 3,812 shares during the second quarter, leaving them with 6,116 shares valued at $915,000.
• Multiple brokerages have increased their price targets for Blackstone, with Evercore ISI raising theirs from $165.00 to $197.00 and a consensus price target currently set at $176.00.
• Blackstone recently increased its quarterly dividend to $1.03 per share, resulting in an annual yield of 2.4%, up from the previous dividend of $0.93.

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 38.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,116 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 3,812 shares during the quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $915,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BX. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc purchased a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on BX. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target 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. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Blackstone in a report on Friday. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $190.00 price objective for the company. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $176.00.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $168.40 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $173.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.77. The company has a market cap of $124.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict 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 given a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing 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 on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.