Marietta Wealth Management LLC Acquires 2,079 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Marietta Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 57,074 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,079 shares during the period. Marietta Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $8,537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 9,760.0% during the 2nd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 493 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the period. Simplicity Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $642,000. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after acquiring an additional 323 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its stake in Blackstone by 746.0% in the 2nd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 51,977 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,775,000 after buying an additional 45,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MBL Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth $238,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI increased 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. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, September 27th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $175.53.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $168.40 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $173.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $153.80. The company has a market cap of $124.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.27, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, the director directly 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is 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.