LPL Financial LLC Buys 22,233 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 902,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,233 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned 0.13% of Blackstone worth $111,786,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 36.6% in the fourth quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 36,215 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,741,000 after purchasing an additional 9,699 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 367,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $48,158,000 after acquiring an additional 28,856 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Blackstone by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 254,099 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $33,267,000 after acquiring an additional 20,830 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 431,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $53,455,000 after purchasing an additional 7,692 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 2,072.0% in the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 36,555 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,802,000 after purchasing an additional 34,872 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BX. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 target price on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Blackstone from $145.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,305,632. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total transaction of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE:BX opened at $146.56 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $88.59 and a 12-month high of $146.98. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $135.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $0.82 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.24%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 115.90%.

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.