Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Buys 1,284 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 18.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,388 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,284 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,284,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281,128 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Blackstone by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,766,875,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546,886 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 19,048.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,409 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $247,423,000 after acquiring an additional 1,873,573 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,442,227,000 after purchasing an additional 1,290,324 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the transaction, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $181.21 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $159.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $139.31. The company has a market capitalization of $130.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $102.59 and a 1-year high of $184.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. Research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a $0.86 dividend. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

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.