Jeppson Wealth Management LLC Raises Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Jeppson Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $980,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BX. McAdam LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% in the first quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 1,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $246,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.6% in the first quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,819 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,652,000 after buying an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.7% in the second quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,111 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Park National Corp OH grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.4% in the second quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 2,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $349,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Breakwater Capital Group increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 5.0% during the second quarter. Breakwater Capital Group now owns 1,613 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $241,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Dbs Bank upgraded Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Down 3.6%

NYSE:BX opened at $178.21 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $131.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $152.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone bought 1,189,532 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.