ABN Amro Investment Solutions Boosts Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• ABN Amro Investment Solutions boosted its Blackstone stake by 75.7% in the fourth quarter, ending with 70,980 shares valued at about $10.94 million.
• Several other institutional investors also increased or initiated positions, and about 70% of Blackstone’s stock is now owned by hedge funds and other institutions.
• Blackstone is drawing attention from multiple catalysts, including its joint venture with Google to build an AI cloud company, while analysts currently have a Hold consensus with a target price of $151.05.

ABN Amro Investment Solutions increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 75.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,980 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 30,580 shares during the period. ABN Amro Investment Solutions' holdings in Blackstone were worth $10,941,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 5,499 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $848,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Northbridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $760,000. Partners Group Holding AG increased its stake in Blackstone by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 334,073 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $51,494,000 after acquiring an additional 19,352 shares during the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its stake in Blackstone by 218.9% during the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 421 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 17,160 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,645,000 after acquiring an additional 3,605 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Blackstone

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone and Google launched a joint venture to create a new AI cloud company centered on Google’s Tensor Processing Units, expanding Blackstone’s exposure to AI infrastructure growth. Blackstone Announces Joint Venture with Google to Create New TPU Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Blackstone is committing $5 billion of equity to the venture, signaling a major investment in AI compute capacity and a potential new earnings growth avenue. Blackstone and Google form AI infrastructure joint venture focused on TPU cloud expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary suggests the Google deal is strengthening Blackstone’s competitive position in AI infrastructure and helping fuel investor optimism around the stock. Google and Blackstone to Create New AI Cloud Company. The Stocks Are Rising.
• Positive Sentiment: A large shareholder disclosed a major stock purchase, which can reinforce confidence in Blackstone’s outlook even if it is not the main day-to-day catalyst. Insider Buying: Blackstone NYSE: BX Major Shareholder Purchases 9,486,795 Shares of Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Blackstone’s digital infrastructure trust completed the underwriters’ option in full, bringing the IPO proceeds above $2.0 billion; this is supportive for the franchise but is a separate capital-markets event. Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust Announces Full Exercise and Closing of Underwriters Option to Purchase Additional Shares in Initial Public Offering
• Neutral Sentiment: TD Cowen trimmed its price target to $133 from $140 but kept a Buy rating, which still implies upside despite a more cautious valuation view. Blackstone NYSE: BX Price Target Lowered to $133.00 at TD Cowen
• Negative Sentiment: Blackstone also gave up its pursuit of the €2.5 billion Stroeer deal, a missed acquisition opportunity that may slightly weigh on M&A sentiment. Blackstone gives up pursuit of €2.5 billion Stroeer deal - Bloomberg

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on BX. Weiss Ratings cut Blackstone from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Argus cut their target price on Blackstone from $163.00 to $146.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. UBS Group cut their target price on Blackstone from $171.00 to $137.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Blackstone from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $151.05.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $116.92 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $101.73 and a 12 month high of $190.09. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $117.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $133.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $86.86 billion, a PE ratio of 29.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.02. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.The firm had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.11 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 118.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,504 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.51, for a total value of $26,246,039.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 25,832 shares in the company, valued at $90,670.32. This trade represents a 99.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $15,961,420.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 13,502,092 shares of company stock worth $294,789,896 and have sold 9,128,660 shares worth $46,457,920. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc NYSE: BX is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone's business is organized around several principal investment platforms.

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