Sanctuary Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 198,724 Blackstone Inc. $BX

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 198,724 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $23,384,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BX. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. United Bank raised its holdings in Blackstone by 14.7% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,024,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,124,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 452,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $67,703,000 after buying an additional 8,655 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $119.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Zacks Research raised Blackstone from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $136.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.95.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE BX opened at $143.56 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $107.76 billion, a PE ratio of 32.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.56. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $101.73 and a one year high of $190.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $128.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.44.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.18. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 21.84%.The firm had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 115.44%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 573,614 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $15,000,006.10. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 8,455,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $221,118,071.70. This trade represents a 7.28% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.23, for a total value of $1,379,685.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 64,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,359,783.04. This trade represents a 12.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders purchased 1,339,180 shares of company stock worth $35,062,433 and sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.