Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 6.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,043 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 1,841 shares during the quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,494,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clarius Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Clarius Group LLC now owns 14,497 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Oak Hill Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 7.5% during the second quarter. Oak Hill Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,422 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $691,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Sava Infond d.o.o. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth approximately $166,000. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 11.1% during the 2nd quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $150,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 4.7% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 131,405 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $19,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,874 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $168.40 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $173.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.83. The company has a market cap of $124.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. 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 twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Friday. They set an "outperform" rating and a $190.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $175.53.

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.

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