Hsbc Holdings PLC Buys 68,362 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

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Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 3.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,810,719 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 68,362 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned 0.25% of Blackstone worth $251,804,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in Blackstone by 105.4% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,874,000 after purchasing an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $63,109,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares during the period. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $1,747,000. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.3% during the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,032,000 after buying an additional 16,486 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at $135,353,571.52. This represents a 11.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $170.12.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded up $6.8030 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $170.2430. 5,187,162 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,648,507. 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 market capitalization of $125.48 billion, a PE ratio of 45.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. The company's 50-day moving average is $161.69 and its 200 day moving average is $149.59. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect 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 is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.