Investors Purchase High Volume of Blackstone Put Options (NYSE:BX)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Oct 20th, 2023

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX – Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 34,135 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 46% compared to the typical daily volume of 23,387 put options.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, CAO David Payne sold 10,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.22, for a total value of $1,032,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 53,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,499,664.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO David Payne sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 53,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,499,664.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William G. Parrett sold 3,874 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.47, for a total transaction of $435,708.78. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,479,934.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 17,391,651 shares of company stock valued at $199,054,287. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 40,375,831 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,546,613,000 after buying an additional 1,480,848 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.4% in the second quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 32,309,237 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,003,788,000 after purchasing an additional 115,544 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,668,954,000 after purchasing an additional 798,734 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,419,249,000 after purchasing an additional 332,962 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 6.4% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,081,117 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,216,151,000 after buying an additional 790,231 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.35% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 7.9 %

NYSE:BX opened at $94.22 on Friday. Blackstone has a twelve month low of $71.72 and a twelve month high of $116.78. 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 has a 50 day moving average price of $105.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $96.05. The company has a market cap of $66.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.47.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 19th. The asset manager reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.60 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 17.92%. The company’s revenue was up 140.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.06 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone will post 4.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 30th will be paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 191.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $110.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $102.00 to $111.00 in a research note on Friday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.97.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Blackstone

About Blackstone

(Get Free Report)

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.