Comerica Bank Purchases 4,263 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Comerica Bank has increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 1.9%, owning a total of 232,594 shares valued at approximately $32.5 million after acquiring 4,263 additional shares in the 1st quarter.
• Insider trading activity showed significant sales, with major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp LLC selling 16.7 million shares for $104.5 million, while Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares for $16.7 million.
• Blackstone recently announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.03 per share, reflecting a positive change from the previous $0.93, representing an annual yield of 2.4%.

Comerica Bank increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 1.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 232,594 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 4,263 shares during the quarter. Comerica Bank's holdings in Blackstone were worth $32,512,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its holdings in Blackstone by 105.4% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,874,000 after acquiring an additional 6,878 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,363,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares in the last quarter. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,747,000. Narwhal Capital Management boosted its stake in Blackstone by 34.3% in the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 16,486 shares during the period. Finally, Heartland Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth approximately $794,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $170.2430 on Monday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $161.69 and its 200 day moving average is $149.41. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $125.48 billion, a PE ratio of 45.76, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. 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 results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Blackstone's payout ratio is 110.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on BX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. JMP Securities upped their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" 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 upped their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $170.12.

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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