Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Invests $850,000 in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. during Q1, acquiring 6,080 shares valued at approximately $850,000.
• Blackstone's major shareholder, Holdings I. L.P., significantly increased their stake by acquiring over 1.1 million shares, while the company's insiders traded a total of nearly 1.2 million shares in the last quarter.
• Blackstone recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03, an increase from the previous amount, representing a 2.4% yield and a payout ratio of 110.75%.

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,080 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $850,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BX. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares during the period. Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $795,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 86,253 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $14,872,000 after purchasing an additional 13,131 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $12,961,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management raised its stake in Blackstone by 140.8% in the 4th quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 3,961 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $683,000 after purchasing an additional 2,316 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $170.12.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders bought 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 owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded down $2.14 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $167.08. 2,285,945 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,226,375. The firm has a market cap of $123.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.71. The stock's fifty day moving average is $159.63 and its 200 day moving average is $149.62. 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.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. 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.