Blackstone Inc. $BX Holdings Boosted by Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC

Key Points

• Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 5.2% in Q1, owning 85,266 shares valued at approximately $11.9 million.
• Blackstone announced a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, up from the previous dividend of $0.93, representing an annualized yield of 2.4%.
• The company's stock had a strong performance in its most recent earnings report, with earnings per share of $1.21, exceeding analysts' estimates of $1.10, and a revenue of $3.07 billion.

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 5.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 85,266 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 4,185 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $11,918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded up $6.8030 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $170.2430. The company had a trading volume of 5,176,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,246,533. The business has a 50-day moving average of $161.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $149.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $125.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 during 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research 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 issued a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's payout ratio is 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $170.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone bought 1,189,532 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. This trade represents a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.