West Family Investments Inc. Acquires 477 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

West Family Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 26.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,256 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 477 shares during the quarter. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $337,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 62,484 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,346,000 after acquiring an additional 1,949 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,394,670,000 after acquiring an additional 1,494,796 shares in the last quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 21.2% in the second quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC now owns 18,785 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,810,000 after purchasing an additional 3,281 shares in the last quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $273,000. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth about $423,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.1%

BX opened at $146.48 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $155.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $158.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $108.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $194.00.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The company 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%. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 147.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone bought 385,208 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $25.96 per share, with a total value of $9,999,999.68. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 16,332,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $424,001,642.68. This trade represents a 2.42% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James Breyer purchased 13,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $143.86 per share, for a total transaction of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 68,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,912,817.16. This represents a 25.27% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders acquired a total of 2,950,751 shares of company stock worth $79,050,138 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a report on Monday, November 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Eleven 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, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.00.

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.