Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 61 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,560 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 61 shares during the quarter. Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. Appleton Partners Inc. MA boosted its position in Blackstone by 0.3% during the second quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA now owns 97,463 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,579,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 15.2% during the 2nd quarter. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC now owns 3,790 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $567,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% in the second quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 54,767 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,192,000 after buying an additional 1,095 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 30.7% during the second quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 48,798 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,299,000 after acquiring an additional 11,461 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kercheville Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 21.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kercheville Advisors LLC now owns 52,380 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,835,000 after acquiring an additional 9,150 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of BX opened at $168.40 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.12 billion, a PE ratio of 45.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $173.81 and its 200-day moving average is $153.83. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BX shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $175.53.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.