Corton Capital Inc. Invests $327,000 in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Corton Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,185 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $327,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the second quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC now owns 155,967 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $23,330,000 after acquiring an additional 2,922 shares during the period. Machina Capital S.A.S. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 665.4% during the second quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. now owns 13,991 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,093,000 after acquiring an additional 12,163 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during the second quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,757 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,759,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the second quarter. Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. now owns 64,857 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,701,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Torray Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 296.6% during the second quarter. Torray Investment Partners LLC now owns 133,647 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $19,991,000 after purchasing an additional 99,950 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $168.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $166.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 2,551,515 shares of company stock valued at $67,038,327 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $146.45 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $107.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $168.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $156.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis 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 is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 147.43%.

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.