Woodward Diversified Capital LLC Buys Shares of 1,485 Blackstone Inc. $BX

Woodward Diversified Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,485 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $166.72 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $122.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $174.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $153.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results 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 during 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 was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.71.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.