Fiduciary Family Office LLC Buys Shares of 3,810 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Fiduciary Family Office LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 3,810 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $533,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,874,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $63,109,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 6.6% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,363,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares during the period. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $1,747,000. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management increased its position in Blackstone by 34.3% during the first quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,032,000 after acquiring an additional 16,486 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.8%

BX opened at $168.93 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $155.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $150.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $123.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.41, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th will be given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares in the company, valued at $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.12.

Blackstone 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.