MAI Capital Management lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 2.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,863 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 1,693 shares during the quarter. MAI Capital Management's holdings in Blackstone were worth $8,927,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes 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 buying an additional 1,313,606 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 136.9% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,270,233 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $177,544,000 after acquiring an additional 734,109 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on BX
Insider Activity at Blackstone
In other Blackstone 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 completion of the transaction, the director 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.
Blackstone Price Performance
Shares of NYSE BX traded up $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $169.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,107,558 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,172,220. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $167.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $149.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $125.26 billion, a PE ratio of 45.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. 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 (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Blackstone Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. 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. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 110.75%.
About Blackstone
(
Free Report)
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.
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