Waverly Advisors LLC Purchases 15,300 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Waverly Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 322.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 20,039 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,300 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,632,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 15,303 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,003,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 63.5% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,684 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 654 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 5,360 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $702,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the period. Finally, Realta Investment Advisors raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Realta Investment Advisors now owns 5,494 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $719,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on BX. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $127.56.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $140.80. 1,794,904 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,536,016. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.59 and a 12 month high of $145.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.77. The company has a market capitalization of $100.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.93 EPS. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.33%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 117.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $119.48 per share, with a total value of $26,166.12. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.