National Pension Service Increases Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• The National Pension Service increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 5.3% during the first quarter, holding approximately 1.4 million shares valued at $197.88 million.
• Director Ruth Porat purchased 222 shares for about $37,804, while Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares for approximately $16.74 million, indicating mixed insider activities.
• Blackstone recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, now yielding 2.3%, with a current payout ratio of 110.75%.

National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 5.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,415,651 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 70,850 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned 0.19% of Blackstone worth $197,880,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Capital Research Global Investors acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $239,837,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,606 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 worth $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised 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 worth $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BX. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Ten equities research 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, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $170.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE BX traded down $2.49 during trading on Monday, hitting $169.13. The stock had a trading volume of 3,947,003 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,239,103. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $159.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $149.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $124.66 billion, a PE ratio of 45.47, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. 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 currently 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.