OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A Sells 1,500 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A has decreased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 3.1%, selling 1,500 shares and now holding 46,130 shares valued at approximately $6.9 million.
• Blackstone recently announced an increased quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, raising the annualized dividend to $4.12, which results in a 2.4% yield.
• Multiple analysts have revised their price targets for Blackstone, with estimates ranging from $166.00 to $197.00, averaging a consensus target price of $172.71 and a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."

OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A lowered its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 3.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 46,130 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 1,500 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up about 2.4% of OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A's holdings in Blackstone were worth $6,900,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position 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 last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at about $151,524,000. Amundi increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, with a total value of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on BX. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.71.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $170.94 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $174.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $153.38. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.00 billion, a PE ratio of 45.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

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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