Narwhal Capital Management Grows Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Narwhal Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 69,983 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 5,369 shares during the quarter. Narwhal Capital Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $10,468,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 34.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 18.8% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 16,123 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 2,555 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 32.2% during the first quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,419 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $478,000 after acquiring an additional 833 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 0.5% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 87,420 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,220,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.5% during the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 28,202 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,942,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’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 directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. This represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, 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. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading 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 two-hundred day moving average is $154.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.68, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.77.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on BX. JMP Securities raised their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.67.

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.