Summit Securities Group LLC Purchases New Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Summit Securities Group LLC has invested $419,000 in Blackstone Inc., acquiring 3,000 shares in the 1st quarter, as indicated in their recent SEC filing.
• Blackstone's recent quarterly earnings exceeded expectations, reporting an EPS of $1.21 and revenue of $3.07 billion, marking a 32.7% increase compared to the same period last year.
• Blackstone announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.03 per share, up from $0.93, representing an annualized yield of 2.4% despite a payout ratio of 110.75%.

Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,000 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $419,000.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $170.12.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. The trade was a 14.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 three months, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock traded down $1.3060 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $163.1640. 3,655,010 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,246,955. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $160.57 and a 200 day moving average of $149.84. The company has a market cap of $120.27 billion, a PE ratio of 43.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.71.

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. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

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.