Kennedy Investment Group Sells 141 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Kennedy Investment Group lessened its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 141 shares during the period. Kennedy Investment Group’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $381,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in Blackstone by 105.4% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,363,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares in the last quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 22.1% in the 2nd quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after acquiring an additional 2,182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management raised its holdings in Blackstone by 34.3% in the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,032,000 after acquiring an additional 16,486 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Down 3.6%

NYSE:BX opened at $178.21 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $131.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $173.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $152.30.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Blackstone Company 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.