Blackstone Inc. $BX is Howard Capital Management Group LLC's 10th Largest Position

Key Points

• Howard Capital Management Group LLC has reduced its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 0.5%, making it the firm's 10th largest position, worth approximately $43.17 million.
• Blackstone recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.03, up from the previous dividend of $0.93, representing an annualized yield of 2.3%.
• Analysts have raised price targets for Blackstone, with a consensus target price of $172.38 and many analysts rating the stock as a "Moderate Buy".

Howard Capital Management Group LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 288,589 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 1,545 shares during the period. Blackstone accounts for approximately 3.0% of Howard Capital Management Group LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Howard Capital Management Group LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $43,167,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in Blackstone by 105.4% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,874,000 after acquiring an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.6% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares in the last quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter worth about $273,000. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 22.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 12,042 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,801,000 after buying an additional 2,182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.3% in the first quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,032,000 after acquiring an additional 16,486 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. JMP Securities raised their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $175.40 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $174.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $152.81. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $129.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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