Waverly Advisors LLC Has $17.10 Million Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Waverly Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 145,297 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,246 shares during the quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $17,097,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Bank OZK grew its stake in Blackstone by 11.5% in the second quarter. Bank OZK now owns 22,759 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,346 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 6,778 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $798,000 after acquiring an additional 1,061 shares during the period. Nykredit A S acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $21,084,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 8.6% during the second quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 4,430 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the period. Finally, Range Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth about $254,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Citizens Jmp cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday, July 20th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Blackstone in a report on Monday, June 8th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $149.43.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $133.89 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $101.73 and a 52-week 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 market capitalization of $100.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.56. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $133.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $123.14.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $5.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.42 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 21.84% and a return on equity of 23.77%. The firm’s revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.44%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.78, for a total transaction of $28,264,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 19,374 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,233.72. This represents a 99.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Finley sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.11, for a total transaction of $6,619,950.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 516,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,911,260.87. This represents a 8.02% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 1,611,822 shares of company stock valued at $42,189,294 and have sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc is a global alternative asset management firm that provides investment management and advisory services to institutions, corporations, and individual investors. The company invests across multiple asset classes, including private equity, real estate, credit, infrastructure, insurance solutions, and hedge fund solutions.

Its investment activities include acquiring and managing businesses, commercial and residential properties, infrastructure assets, and credit investments.