Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Jackson Wealth Management LLC

Jackson Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 58,497 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 280 shares during the period. Blackstone accounts for 1.0% of Jackson Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Jackson Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $8,750,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Ascent Group LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.4% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 12,708 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,901,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.0% during the second quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 7,543 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,128,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Family CFO Inc acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth $28,000. River Street Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 16,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,511,000 after acquiring an additional 876 shares during the period. Finally, Abacus Planning Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $202,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.12 billion, a PE ratio of 45.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.77. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $173.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $153.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted 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. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on BX. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.00.

Blackstone 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.