5,687 Shares in Blackstone Inc. $BX Purchased by Pure Financial Advisors LLC

Pure Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 5,687 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $669,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $6,112,162,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,364,373,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,275,747,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $605,267,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $514,736,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BX. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $119.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $136.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Citizens Jmp dropped their target price on Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, HSBC reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $147.95.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $143.25 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $101.73 and a 12 month high of $190.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market cap of $107.53 billion, a PE ratio of 32.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.56. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.68.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 21.84%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 115.44%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.55, for a total transaction of $4,066,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 869,669 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $117,883,632.95. This represents a 3.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat purchased 371 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were bought at an average price of $137.17 per share, with a total value of $50,890.07. Following the purchase, the director owned 42,189 shares in the company, valued at $5,787,065.13. This represents a 0.89% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders bought 1,611,822 shares of company stock worth $42,189,294 and sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.