Shepherd Financial Partners LLC Buys New Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Shepherd Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 28,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $3,366,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14.7% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,024,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $1,124,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 452,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $67,703,000 after purchasing an additional 8,655 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX opened at $145.15 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $108.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $127.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.43. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $101.73 and a 52-week high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.18. Blackstone had a net margin of 21.84% and a return on equity of 23.77%. The firm had revenue of $5.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 6 earnings per share 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 issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 115.44%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, CAO David Payne sold 9,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.23, for a total value of $1,379,685.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 64,448 shares in the company, valued at $9,359,783.04. The trade was a 12.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.11, for a total value of $6,619,950.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 516,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,911,260.87. This trade represents a 8.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 1,339,180 shares of company stock valued at $35,062,433 and have sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citizens Jmp reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, June 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.95.

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.