Kennebec Savings Bank Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 4,871 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $729,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after acquiring an additional 6,878 shares in the last quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at about $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 22.1% in the 2nd quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after acquiring an additional 2,182 shares during the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management increased its holdings in Blackstone by 34.3% in the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,032,000 after acquiring an additional 16,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 14,708 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,056,000 after acquiring an additional 1,863 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.5%

NYSE:BX opened at $168.22 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. 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 firm has a market cap of $124.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $174.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $153.48.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BX. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is 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.