Blackstone Inc. $BX Holdings Raised by RNC Capital Management LLC

RNC Capital Management LLC grew its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 20.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,723 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 640 shares during the quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $520,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in Blackstone by 105.4% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,874,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,363,000 after buying an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $1,747,000. Narwhal Capital Management boosted its position in Blackstone by 34.3% during the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,032,000 after acquiring an additional 16,486 shares during the period. Finally, Heartland Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth $794,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. 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 report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total value of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This trade represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 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 company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $169.94 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $167.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.78. The firm has a market cap of $125.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.68, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 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.