Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc Takes $419,000 Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,802 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $419,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 16,123 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after purchasing an additional 2,555 shares during the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 32.2% during the first quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,419 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $478,000 after buying an additional 833 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 87,420 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,220,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 1.5% during the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 28,202 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,942,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $162.48 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $173.11 and its 200 day moving average is $154.09. The stock has a market cap of $119.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.68, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current 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.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted 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. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.67.

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.