Norway Savings Bank Purchases 1,115 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Norway Savings Bank grew its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,523 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,115 shares during the period. Norway Savings Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Park Edge Advisors LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 1.7% in the first quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC now owns 6,829 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $600,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,778 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Signet Financial Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC now owns 6,016 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 4,607 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $585,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the period. Finally, Smith Moore & CO. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 13,830 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. 63.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX traded up $1.08 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $113.79. The company had a trading volume of 117,475,896 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,169,057. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $80.76 billion, a PE ratio of 68.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.49. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $103.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $92.70. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.72 and a 1-year high of $115.19.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.43 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 16.99%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 347.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.49 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 31st were paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 28th. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 191.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Friday, July 21st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $102.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.97.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 85,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.08, for a total transaction of $7,911,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,060,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $98,706,499.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 85,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.08, for a total value of $7,911,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,060,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $98,706,499.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO David Payne sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.22, for a total transaction of $1,032,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 53,281 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,499,664.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,402,086 shares of company stock valued at $198,963,771 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Profile

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.