Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC Grows Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC has dramatically increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by acquiring 70,118,948 shares, raising its ownership to approximately 1.4% of the company's stock.
• Insider sales were reported, with Vikrant Sawhney selling 50,850 shares and John G. Finley selling 21,500 shares, indicating a decrease in their ownership stakes in Blackstone.
• Blackstone has recently announced a dividend increase to $1.03 per share, boosting its annualized dividend to $4.12, despite a payout ratio of 110.75%.

Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 519,669.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Blackstone comprises 1.4% of Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC owned approximately 9.61% of Blackstone worth $10,490,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Amundi lifted its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted 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 buying an additional 742,829 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, 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 transaction, the director directly owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX traded down $1.85 on Monday, hitting $185.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,036,644 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,169,699. The company has a market capitalization of $136.93 billion, a PE ratio of 49.94, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $172.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $151.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS 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 given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio is 110.75%.

Blackstone Company 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.