Ethic Inc. Purchases 3,125 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 5.2% in the first quarter, now holding 63,685 shares valued at approximately $9.09 million.
• Blackstone reported quarterly earnings of $1.21 per share, surpassing analysts' expectations, along with significant revenue growth of 32.7% year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, marking an increase from the previous $0.93 and representing a yield of 2.4%.

Ethic Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 5.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 63,685 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 3,125 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $9,094,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $28,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE BX traded down $0.8480 during trading on Thursday, hitting $163.6220. 955,204 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,229,417. The business's fifty day moving average is $160.57 and its 200 day moving average is $149.84. 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 $120.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 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 posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research 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 a consensus target price of $170.12.

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.