AIA Group Ltd Increases Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Key Points

• AIA Group Ltd increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 12% during Q1, now holding 40,561 shares worth approximately $5.67 million.
• Equity analysts have raised their price targets for Blackstone, with Barclays and Evercore ISI setting targets as high as $197, while maintaining a consensus "Hold" rating.
• Blackstone announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.03 per share, with dividends to be paid on August 11th, marking a rise from the previous $0.93 per share.

AIA Group Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 12.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,561 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 4,332 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd's holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 222 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $170.29 per share, with a total value of $37,804.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 38,753 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,599,248.37. The trade was a 0.58% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired a total of 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BX. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $170.12.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE BX traded down $1.87 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $174.76. 2,834,728 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,244,846. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $157.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $150.27. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.98, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

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.