First National Trust Co Increases Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

First National Trust Co increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 444 shares during the period. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,160,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi raised its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of BX stock opened at $151.83 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $111.91 billion, a PE ratio of 43.38, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $169.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.43.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. On average, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 117.71%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. HSBC reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

Blackstone Company 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.