PGIM Custom Harvest LLC Increases Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• PGIM Custom Harvest LLC significantly increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 76% in the first quarter, growing its holdings to 6,823 shares valued at approximately $954,000.
• Blackstone recently raised its quarterly dividend to $1.03, up from $0.93, resulting in an annualized dividend of $4.12 and a yield of 2.5%.
• The company reported $1.21 EPS in its latest earnings, surpassing estimates, and noted a 32.7% increase in revenue year-over-year, with actual revenues reaching $3.07 billion.

PGIM Custom Harvest LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 76.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,823 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 2,947 shares during the quarter. PGIM Custom Harvest LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $954,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the first 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% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,270,233 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $177,544,000 after buying an additional 734,109 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.8%

Blackstone stock opened at $164.3350 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $121.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.18, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.71. 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 firm's 50 day moving average price is $160.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $149.84.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $170.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 222 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $170.29 per share, for a total transaction of $37,804.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 38,753 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,599,248.37. This trade represents a 0.58% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

About Blackstone

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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