Optimist Retirement Group LLC Purchases 15,427 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Optimist Retirement Group LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 15,427 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,729,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BX. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $6,112,162,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,364,373,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $605,267,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $514,736,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $270,380,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone sold 124,600 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.40, for a total transaction of $2,043,440.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 3,767,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.94, for a total transaction of $11,077,261.44. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 16,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,392.80. The trade was a 99.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 464,792 shares of company stock valued at $12,205,945 and have sold 4,047,276 shares valued at $33,507,144. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $125.61 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.91, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.52. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $101.73 and a one year high of $165.14. The company’s fifty day moving average is $121.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The asset manager reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.06. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.16% and a net margin of 22.11%. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 2nd will be issued a $1.12 dividend. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. This is a negative change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 2nd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.56%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BX. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $144.57.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE:BX) is a global alternative asset management firm that provides investment and advisory services to institutional investors, companies, and qualified individual investors. The company manages capital across private equity, real estate, credit and insurance, infrastructure, hedge fund solutions, secondaries, and growth-oriented investments.

Blackstone invests in and manages portfolios of businesses, properties, infrastructure assets, and credit instruments across a range of industries.