Pure Financial Advisors LLC Invests $657,000 in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Pure Financial Advisors LLC invested approximately $657,000 in Blackstone Inc. by acquiring 4,391 shares during the 2nd quarter.
• Major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16.69 million shares of Blackstone, totaling over $104 million, indicating significant insider trading activity.
• Blackstone recently declared a quarterly dividend increase from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, reflecting the company's solid financial performance and commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Pure Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 4,391 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $657,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st 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 period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi lifted its position in Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on BX shares. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $176.00.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $124.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $173.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $153.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $1.03 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.