Ruth Porat, a director at Blackstone (BX), recently added 5,000 shares. The buy increased her stake by 46 percent, and came to a total of just under $550,000.
This is the third buy from the director this year. She previously bought another 5,000 shares back in February, shelling out over $630,000 at the time. Going further back, company insiders, including directors, have been inclined to be sellers of shares.
Overall, insiders at the asset management giant own 0.7 percent of shares.
Shares are still up 20 percent over the past year, even as the stock has lost over one-third of its value in the past few months. That’s a return that still lags the company’s earnings growth of 87 percent over the past year, and revenue growth of 52 percent over the past year.
Action to take: The company is a survivor, and buying during a period of market fears could make for a big winner over the long term. Plus, today’s buyers can get a dividend yield of 3.8 percent. There’s room for that payout to grow in time, although there hasn’t been a dividend increase in the past year.
For traders, the September $130 calls, last going for about $3.20, could leverage a move higher in shares into a mid-to-high double-digit return in the coming months.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.