Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Increases Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,543 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 290 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,128,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Family CFO Inc purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. River Street Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 5.5% during the second quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 16,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,511,000 after buying an additional 876 shares during the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $202,000. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at about $2,138,000. Finally, OLD Second National Bank of Aurora raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.0% during the second quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 36,715 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,492,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $168.40 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $173.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.12 billion, a PE ratio of 45.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.Blackstone’s revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $175.53.

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.