Baird Financial Group Inc. Has $25.90 Million Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 10.4%, owning 185,280 shares after selling 21,599 shares in the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their holdings in Blackstone during the same period, with GAMMA Investing LLC raising its stake by 14,608.6% to own 1,322,598 shares.
• Blackstone reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $1.21, which exceeded analyst estimates, and announced an increase in its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03.

Baird Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 10.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 185,280 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 21,599 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $25,898,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,195,551 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $895,817,000 after buying an additional 144,926 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $581,886,000 after purchasing an additional 117,724 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,109,020 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $708,477,000 after acquiring an additional 678,111 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock traded up $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $169.94. The stock had a trading volume of 3,107,558 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,172,220. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $167.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $125.26 billion, a PE ratio of 45.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business's revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,261,325.36. The trade was a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 222 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $170.29 per share, with a total value of $37,804.38. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 38,753 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,599,248.37. This trade represents a 0.58% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.