Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA Boosts Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 22.1%, acquiring an additional 1,819 shares, bringing their total to 10,035 shares worth approximately $1.5 million.
• Multiple institutional investors, including Kingstone Capital Partners and GAMMA Investing, significantly increased their positions in Blackstone, indicating strong interest in the asset management firm.
• Blackstone declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, up from its previous $0.93, reflecting a commitment to returning value to shareholders amidst growth expectations.

Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA raised its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 22.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,035 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 1,819 shares during the period. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA's holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,501,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Blackstone stock traded down $1.85 during trading on Monday, hitting $185.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,037,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,352,768. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $136.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $173.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $151.89.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share 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%. Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 453,836 shares of the company's stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. This represents a 4.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.