First County Bank CT Purchases 2,443 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• First County Bank CT significantly increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by purchasing an additional 2,443 shares, bringing its total holdings to 4,453 shares valued at $666,000.
• In a recent quarter, Blackstone's quarterly earnings surpassed expectations, reporting $1.21 per share on revenue of $3.07 billion, significantly above analysts' estimates.
• Blackstone's dividend was increased to $1.03 per share, translating to an annualized amount of $4.12 with a yield of 2.3%, up from the previous dividend of $0.93.

First County Bank CT grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 121.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,453 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 2,443 shares during the quarter. First County Bank CT's holdings in Blackstone were worth $666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares in the last quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,505 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 13.7% during the first quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,566 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $219,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,459 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,182,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone 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 stock was 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 link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $175.40 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $174.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $153.01. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.29 billion, a PE ratio of 47.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. 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 currently 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased 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. JMP Securities lifted their target price 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. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price 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.

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