Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by Pallas Capital Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Pallas Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 93.9% to a total of 6,630 shares, valued at approximately $992,000.
• Blackstone reported $1.21 earnings per share for the latest quarter, exceeding estimates of $1.10, and its revenue grew by 32.7% year-over-year.
• The firm raised its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 2.2%.

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 93.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,630 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 3,211 shares during the quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $992,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $7,476,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $3,809,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in Blackstone by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 137,888 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $23,775,000 after buying an additional 18,637 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $1,113,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of BX stock traded down $0.69 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $187.99. 7,403,015 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,242,008. The stock's 50 day moving average is $172.71 and its 200-day moving average is $151.57. The company has a market cap of $138.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on 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 assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

About Blackstone

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.