Sovran Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Sovran Advisors LLC purchased 1,757 shares of Blackstone Inc. valued at approximately $275,000 in the second quarter, as part of a growing trend where hedge funds are increasing their stakes in the company.
• Research analysts have raised price targets for Blackstone shares, with estimates reaching as high as $195.00, reflecting a positive outlook on the company's performance.
• Blackstone recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, marking an increase from the previous dividend, with a current yield of 2.2%.

Sovran Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,757 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $275,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during 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. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the 1st 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 buying an additional 182,526 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the business'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 value 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. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale 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 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays upped their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE BX traded down $0.59 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $185.05. 1,001,969 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,151,870. 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 stock has a market cap of $136.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.85, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $151.89.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's payout ratio is presently 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.