AdvisorNet Financial Inc Acquires 1,067 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 17.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,118 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $881,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its position in Blackstone by 36.6% during the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 36,215 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,741,000 after purchasing an additional 9,699 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 367,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $48,158,000 after buying an additional 28,856 shares during the period. Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 20,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,649,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Blackstone by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 254,099 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $33,267,000 after purchasing an additional 20,830 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 34,872 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. 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. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $128.65.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.3 %

Blackstone stock traded up $0.38 during trading on Thursday, reaching $136.54. 2,170,434 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,525,453. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $88.59 and a 52-week high of $145.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $128.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $126.30. The company has a market capitalization of $97.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.21, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.90%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,305,632. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares in the company, valued at $56,567,311.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.