Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 11,416 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 55.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 11,416 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,377,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 105.4% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after acquiring an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone during the second quarter worth $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 22.1% during the second quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,801,000 after buying an additional 2,182 shares during the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the second quarter worth $423,000. Finally, Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 14.5% during the first quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 14,708 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,056,000 after buying an additional 1,863 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.83.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $164.83 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $121.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.31, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $173.37 and a 200 day moving average of $154.03.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly 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. In the last three months, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.