Next Level Private LLC Purchases 137 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Next Level Private LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. Blackstone makes up about 1.6% of Next Level Private LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Next Level Private LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,780,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Chemistry Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.4% during the second quarter. Chemistry Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $685,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 3,000.0% during the 2nd quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 3,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 439 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 23,225 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,474,000 after purchasing an additional 3,202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BX. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays boosted 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. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $181.44 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $133.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $170.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $150.49. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost 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 yield of 2.3%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.