Orca Wealth Management LLC Sells 479 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Orca Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,871 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 479 shares during the quarter. Blackstone makes up about 2.1% of Orca Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Orca Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone bought 1,189,532 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $105,388,604.62. This trade represents a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $168.40 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $173.81 and a 200 day moving average of $153.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year 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.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The business 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%.The company’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share 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. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective 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 increased their price objective on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Blackstone in a research note on Friday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $175.53.

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.