Xcel Wealth Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Xcel Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,112 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 181 shares during the period. Xcel Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,812,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Down 3.6%

Shares of BX stock opened at $178.21 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $131.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.91, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $152.30.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the 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 owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone 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.