Alliancebernstein L.P. Purchases 39,917 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 5.5%, acquiring an additional 39,917 shares in the first quarter, bringing its total holdings to approximately $107.7 million.
• Wall Street analysts are showing a positive outlook for Blackstone, with nine analysts rating it as a Buy and a raised average price target of $172.38.
• Blackstone recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.03 per share from the previous $0.93, reflecting a commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 5.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 770,758 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 39,917 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.11% of Blackstone worth $107,737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,488 shares in the company, valued at $9,261,325.36. This trade represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of BX stock opened at $169.94 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $167.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $125.26 billion, a PE ratio of 45.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

About Blackstone

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.

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