Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Acquired by UMB Bank n.a.

Key Points

• UMB Bank n.a. significantly increased its position in Blackstone Inc. by 465.6% during the second quarter, owning 60,556 shares valued at approximately $9.06 million.
• Equity analysts have raised their price targets for Blackstone, with Piper Sandler setting a new target at $181.00 and Evercore ISI increasing theirs to $197.00, resulting in an average consensus price target of $172.38.
• Blackstone recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, marking a positive change from the previous dividend and representing a 2.2% yield for investors.

UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 465.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 60,556 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 49,850 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $9,058,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 14,608.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 1.6% in the first 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 purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% during the first 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of 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 given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 222 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $170.29 per share, for a total transaction of $37,804.38. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 38,753 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,599,248.37. This represents a 0.58% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:BX traded down $0.57 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $185.08. The stock had a trading volume of 1,389,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,153,993. The stock has a market cap of $136.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm's fifty day moving average is $173.16 and its 200 day moving average is $151.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The company 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%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. 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 2.2%. 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.