Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC Takes Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC has recently acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc., purchasing 1,420 shares valued at approximately $212,000.
• Blackstone's quarterly earnings report revealed an earnings per share (EPS) of $1.21, exceeding analysts' estimates and marking a 32.7% year-over-year revenue increase to $3.07 billion.
• The company plans to increase its annualized dividend to $4.12 per share, up from the previous $0.93, representing a dividend yield of 2.2%.

Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,420 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at about $151,524,000. Amundi grew its stake 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 during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock traded down $0.69 during trading on Friday, hitting $187.99. The stock had a trading volume of 7,403,015 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,176,041. The firm has a market cap of $138.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The business's 50-day moving average is $172.20 and its 200 day moving average is $151.31.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 222 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $170.29 per share, for a total transaction of $37,804.38. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 38,753 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,599,248.37. This trade represents a 0.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,261,325.36. This trade represents a 14.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, 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. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.

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.