Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Acquired by Czech National Bank

Key Points

• The **Czech National Bank** increased its stake in **Blackstone Inc.** by **6.1%**, acquiring a total of **178,351 shares** valued at approximately **$26.68 million**.
• The company has **increased its quarterly dividend to $1.03**, representing an annualized yield of **2.2%**, up from the previous dividend of **$0.93**.

Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 178,351 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 10,239 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank's holdings in Blackstone were worth $26,678,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $151,524,000. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $183.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $135.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $170.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $150.65. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company 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 yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm's 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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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