Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Takes Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Central Pacific Bank Trust Division has acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc., purchasing 6,983 shares valued at approximately $1,045,000 during the second quarter.
• Blackstone recently reported earnings per share of $1.21, exceeding the consensus estimate of $1.10, with quarterly revenue reaching $3.07 billion, a 32.7% increase from the previous year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, an increase from the previous dividend of $0.93, representing an annualized yield of 2.3%.

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,983 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $1,045,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake 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. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth $151,524,000. Amundi raised its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $181.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.77, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a 50-day moving average of $170.04 and a 200-day moving average of $150.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is an increase from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on BX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. JMP Securities increased their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $25.22 per share, with a total value 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 three months, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.

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