38,565 Shares in Blackstone Inc. $BX Purchased by Compass Wealth Management LLC

Compass Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 38,565 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $4,538,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 100,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,561,000 after buying an additional 8,321 shares during the period. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $1,340,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,667,695 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,046,859,000 after acquiring an additional 840,258 shares during the period. Marble Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,303,000. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 92.2% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 807,184 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $92,817,000 after purchasing an additional 387,109 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 371 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $137.17 per share, with a total value of $50,890.07. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 42,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,787,065.13. The trade was a 0.89% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 573,614 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $26.15 per share, with a total value of $15,000,006.10. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 8,455,758 shares in the company, valued at approximately $221,118,071.70. This trade represents a 7.28% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have bought 1,339,180 shares of company stock valued at $35,062,433 and have sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BX. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $215.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on Blackstone from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Citizens Jmp reduced their price target on Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.95.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $140.62 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $127.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.41. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $101.73 and a one year high of $190.09. The firm has a market cap of $105.56 billion, a PE ratio of 31.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.55.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.18. Blackstone had a net margin of 21.84% and a return on equity of 23.77%. The company had revenue of $5.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.42 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone’s revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 6 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 115.44%.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.