Empirical Finance LLC Grows Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 55.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,272 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,530 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $654,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $26,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth $27,000. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $181.41 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $161.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $140.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.34, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $102.79 and a twelve month high of $184.34.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $157.63.

Blackstone Company 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.