Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS Lowers Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 35.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,114 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $586,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi raised its position in Blackstone by 69.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.3%

NYSE BX opened at $181.44 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $150.59. The firm has a market cap of $133.74 billion, a PE ratio of 48.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone’s revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders 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%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.38.

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.