Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Purchased by Caprock Group LLC

Caprock Group LLC lifted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 58.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,734 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,474 shares during the quarter. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,031,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 16,485 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054 shares during the period. Drive Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $214,000. Capital City Trust Co. FL boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 19,066 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,920,000 after acquiring an additional 933 shares in the last quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank bought a new stake in Blackstone during the third quarter valued at about $233,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $194.21 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $141.94. The firm has a market cap of $140.22 billion, a PE ratio of 66.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $105.51 and a 12 month high of $194.64.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a dividend of $0.86 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 118.21%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

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.