Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Buys 190 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,396 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 190 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,256,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Mattern Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.8% in the second quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $331,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% in the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,202,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 1.0% in the second quarter. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $980,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. McAdam LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 4.4% in the first quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 1,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $246,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Angeles Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 0.6% in the first quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,819 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,652,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business’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 value of $8,829,594.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, 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. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on BX shares. Dbs Bank upgraded Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.06.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $158.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $172.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $154.42. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.56 billion, a PE ratio of 42.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.