American Assets Investment Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Key Points

• American Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 1,270.5%, acquiring an additional 43,896 shares, bringing its total holdings to 47,351 shares worth $6.62 million.
• Blackstone's recent quarterly earnings report exceeded expectations, with earnings per share of $1.21, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10, and revenue of $3.07 billion, a 32.7% increase year-over-year.
• The firm also announced a dividend increase to $1.03 per share from $0.93, reflecting a dividend yield of 2.4% and a payout ratio of 100%.

American Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 1,270.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,351 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 43,896 shares during the period. American Assets Investment Management LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $6,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $170.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone bought 1,189,532 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX stock traded down $1.68 during trading on Thursday, reaching $167.67. The company had a trading volume of 3,082,252 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,034,718. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $150.59. The company has a market cap of $122.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th will be issued a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Blackstone Company 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.