Cove Private Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Cove Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone Inc., purchasing 2,132 shares valued at approximately $319,000 in the second quarter.
• Analysts have raised Blackstone's stock price targets, with JMP Securities increasing their target from $180.00 to $195.00 and Evercore ISI from $165.00 to $197.00.
• Blackstone reported a 32.7% increase in revenue year-over-year, with quarterly earnings exceeding analyst estimates at $1.21 EPS.

Cove Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,132 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares in 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 valued at $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $599,872,000 after acquiring an additional 182,526 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $581,886,000 after purchasing an additional 117,724 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on BX shares. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. JMP Securities increased their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped 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. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $175.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $174.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $152.81. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $129.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the transaction, 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 acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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