Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 24,668 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,069 shares during the quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,690,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Family CFO Inc bought a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BX shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $178.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $148.79 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $109.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.51, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $169.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. As a group, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 117.71%.

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.