Meitav Investment House Ltd. Has $36.30 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Meitav Investment House Ltd. increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 91.6%, owning a total of 242,591 shares valued at approximately $36.30 million as of its latest SEC filing.
• Blackstone recently raised its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03 per share, representing an annualized yield of 2.5%.
• A range of analysts have set new price targets for Blackstone, with Piper Sandler raising its target from $157 to $181, while JMP Securities set a target of $195.

Meitav Investment House Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 91.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 242,591 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 116,000 shares during the quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $36,297,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 1.6% during 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 4.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $599,872,000 after acquiring an additional 182,526 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on BX shares. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $175.53.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $166.73 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year 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. The firm has a market cap of $122.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.82, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $173.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $153.96.

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, beating 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%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.

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