Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 8.5%, purchasing an additional 2,170 shares and bringing its total to 27,782 shares, valued at approximately $3.88 million.
• Blackstone recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, an increase from the previous dividend of $0.93, yielding an annualized dividend of $4.12.
• Institutional investors own 70.00% of Blackstone's stock, with several large firms, including Vanguard and Goldman Sachs, increasing their stakes significantly during the first quarter.

Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 8.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 27,782 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 2,170 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up approximately 1.4% of Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,883,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BX. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded up $2.51 during trading on Thursday, reaching $169.85. 2,538,795 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,173,086. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $125.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.77. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $166.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $149.94.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The business's revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a 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%.

Blackstone Company 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.