Proficio Capital Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 49,947 Blackstone Inc. $BX

Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 49,947 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $5,877,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $6,112,162,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $1,364,373,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $1,275,747,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter worth approximately $605,267,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $514,736,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. Zacks Research raised Blackstone from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $119.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reduced their target price on Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.95.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $143.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.56. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $129.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $122.68. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $101.73 and a 52-week high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 371 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $137.17 per share, for a total transaction of $50,890.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 42,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,787,065.13. This represents a 0.89% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv L.P. Blackstone bought 272,642 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $26.14 per share, with a total value of $7,126,861.88. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 8,704,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,533,512.66. This represents a 3.23% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have bought 1,611,822 shares of company stock worth $42,189,294 and have sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.