First Pacific Financial Lowers Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

First Pacific Financial lessened its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,974 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 646 shares during the quarter. First Pacific Financial’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,043,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in BX. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter worth $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone bought 1,189,532 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $170.94 on Wednesday. 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 market capitalization of $126.00 billion, a PE ratio of 45.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $174.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $153.38. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company 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%.Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 110.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. 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 research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.71.

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.