Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $42.39 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its Blackstone stake by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, ending with 275,030 shares valued at about $42.39 million.
• Blackstone’s latest quarterly results showed EPS of $1.36, edging past analyst estimates, while revenue came in at $3.43 billion, slightly below expectations but still up 10% year over year.
• The company paid a quarterly dividend of $1.16 per share, equal to a 4.1% annualized yield, though its payout ratio is relatively high at 118.67%.

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 275,030 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 10,852 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB's holdings in Blackstone were worth $42,393,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 34.6% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 9.3% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $310,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. United Bank raised its holdings in Blackstone by 14.7% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,024,000 after buying an additional 1,729 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the second quarter worth $1,124,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.9% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 452,619 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $67,703,000 after buying an additional 8,655 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $114.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $84.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.24, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.63. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $117.21 and a 200 day moving average of $134.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $101.73 and a fifty-two week high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.67% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.11 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is presently 118.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Citigroup reiterated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Blackstone from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $137.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $151.05.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total transaction of $15,961,420.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone bought 2,868,069 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $26.15 per share, with a total value of $75,000,004.35. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 18,628,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $487,129,914.25. This trade represents a 18.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 13,502,092 shares of company stock valued at $294,789,896 and have sold 9,128,660 shares valued at $46,457,920. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

More Blackstone News

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone and Google announced a joint venture to build a new AI cloud company centered on Google’s Tensor Processing Units, giving Blackstone exposure to a fast-growing AI infrastructure market. Blackstone Announces Joint Venture with Google to Create New TPU Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Blackstone is committing $5 billion in equity to the venture, which may be viewed as a significant long-term investment in AI compute capacity and a potential new growth driver. Blackstone and Google form AI infrastructure joint venture focused on TPU cloud expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary said the Blackstone-Google deal is pressuring smaller cloud infrastructure names, suggesting investors may see Blackstone as better positioned than leveraged AI infrastructure competitors. Google and Blackstone to Create New AI Cloud Company. The Stocks Are Rising.
• Neutral Sentiment: TD Cowen lowered its price target on Blackstone to $133 from $140, but kept a Buy rating, which points to continued upside expectations despite the trim.
• Neutral Sentiment: Blackstone also abandoned its pursuit of the €2.5 billion Stroeer deal, a separate M&A item that does not appear central to the stock’s immediate move.
• Neutral Sentiment: A major shareholder, Treasury Holdings I. Blackstone, disclosed a large share purchase, which can be read as a confidence signal but is less likely to move the stock by itself.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc NYSE: BX is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone's business is organized around several principal investment platforms.

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