Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc.

Key Points

• Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 31.9%, owning 4,547 shares valued at $636,000 after selling 2,130 shares in the first quarter.
• Blackstone recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, increasing from the previous $0.93, representing an annual yield of 2.4%.
• Analysts have a Moderate Buy rating on Blackstone, with Piper Sandler raising their price target from $157 to $181, reflecting positive growth expectations.

Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 31.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,547 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 2,130 shares during the quarter. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $636,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, 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 sale, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock traded down $1.90 on Tuesday, hitting $169.50. 2,460,725 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,191,475. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $124.94 billion, a PE ratio of 45.57, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company's fifty day moving average is $165.78 and its 200 day moving average is $149.68.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business's revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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 research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, 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.