Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by Cresset Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 82%, acquiring an additional 77,550 shares, bringing its total holdings to 172,072 shares valued at approximately $24 million.
• Blackstone recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, up from the previous $0.93, indicating a positive change in its dividend policy.
• The company's latest earnings report showed revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, surpassing analyst expectations and reflecting a 32.7% increase year-over-year.

Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 82.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 172,072 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 77,550 shares during the quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $24,052,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,209,707,000 after acquiring an additional 681,512 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 16.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 144,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in the first 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 last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total value of $1,597,718.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This trade represents a 14.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, 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. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $170.12.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX traded down $2.9550 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $164.3350. 3,462,571 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,238,554. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $160.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $149.74. 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 $121.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. 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. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.