Cwm LLC Raises Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Cwm LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,583 shares during the quarter. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,809,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bay Rivers Group raised its holdings in Blackstone by 0.4% in the first quarter. Bay Rivers Group now owns 19,853 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,608,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.9% in the first quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,556 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $931,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.7% in the second quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc now owns 3,344 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $414,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fragasso Group Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 3,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of BX traded down $2.72 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $127.59. The company had a trading volume of 2,940,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,567,886. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $88.59 and a 1-year high of $145.16. The stock has a market cap of $91.18 billion, a PE ratio of 45.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.50. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $127.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $125.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.58 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.93 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Argus upped their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $127.56.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.