New York State Teachers Retirement System Has $82.54 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• The New York State Teachers Retirement System decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. by 1.8% in Q2, owning 551,816 shares valued at approximately $82.54 million.
• Blackstone recently raised its quarterly dividend from $0.93 to $1.03, resulting in an annualized dividend of $4.12 and a yield of 2.5%.
• Analysts have varied price targets for Blackstone, with an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a target price of around $180.33, reflecting mixed sentiment about the stock's future performance.

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 1.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 551,816 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 10,219 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.08% of Blackstone worth $82,541,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,462 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,323,000 after buying an additional 470 shares during the period. Mission Wealth Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 12.7% in the first quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 8,382 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,172,000 after buying an additional 942 shares during the period. Sowell Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 12,479 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,744,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 70.8% in the first quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 2,895 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $163.92 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $172.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $154.56. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. This represents a 39.79% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $171.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $180.33.

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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