Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Acquired by Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,595 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 365 shares during the quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $388,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% in the 4th 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 period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,462 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,323,000 after purchasing an additional 470 shares during the period. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 13.2% in the 1st quarter. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,733 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $801,000 after acquiring an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,591 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CRA Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. CRA Financial Services LLC now owns 2,787 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $390,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.00.

Blackstone Trading Down 4.2%

NYSE BX opened at $153.88 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $172.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $154.28. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. 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 $113.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.37, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

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.