Jackson Square Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Jackson Square Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. valued at approximately $1,234,000 by purchasing 8,249 shares during the second quarter.
• Blackstone recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.03, up from the previous dividend of $0.93, reflecting a yield of 2.2% and a payout ratio of 110.75%.
• The company reported earnings per share of $1.21 for the last quarter, surpassing estimates and showing a 32.7% increase in revenue year-over-year.

Jackson Square Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 8,249 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $1,234,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 66.7% during the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 27,996 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,827,000 after purchasing an additional 11,202 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP purchased a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $7,476,000. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 23.1% during the fourth quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 27,708 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,777,000 after purchasing an additional 5,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,809,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $25.22 per share, with a total value of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the director owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on BX. 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 note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. 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, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of Blackstone stock traded down $0.69 during trading on Friday, hitting $187.99. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,403,015 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,242,008. 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 has a fifty day simple moving average of $172.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.57. The company has a market capitalization of $138.57 billion, a PE ratio of 50.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.77. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Blackstone's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's payout ratio is 110.75%.

Blackstone Profile

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.