Community Trust & Investment Co. Acquires 794 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Community Trust & Investment Co. increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,941 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 794 shares during the period. Community Trust & Investment Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,063,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BX. Fairfield Bush & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 56.1% in the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 4,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530 shares during the last quarter. United Bank grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.2% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 8,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,072,000 after purchasing an additional 2,153 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 10.4% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 10,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,392,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034 shares in the last quarter. Insight Advisors LLC PA grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Insight Advisors LLC PA now owns 18,446 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,341,000 after buying an additional 286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 38,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,878,000 after buying an additional 4,366 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on Blackstone from $105.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Blackstone from $110.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $125.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, September 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $101.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.97.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director William G. Parrett sold 3,874 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.47, for a total transaction of $435,708.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,479,934.27. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director William G. Parrett sold 3,874 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.47, for a total value of $435,708.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,479,934.27. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Lower Holdings L.P. Juno sold 2,598,609 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.80, for a total transaction of $72,241,330.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 17,402,086 shares of company stock valued at $198,963,771. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX remained flat at $114.37 during trading on Tuesday. 1,369,085 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,165,738. The stock has a market cap of $81.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.21, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.72 and a 52 week high of $115.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $103.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.72.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The asset manager reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 16.99%. Blackstone’s revenue was up 347.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.49 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 31st were issued a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 28th. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 191.52%.

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.