Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC Has $51.91 Million Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Key Points

• Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC has reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX) by 0.9%, now holding approximately $51.91 million worth of shares, which represent about 30.3% of the fund's total holdings.
• Blackstone recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share, increasing from the previous dividend of $0.93, resulting in an annualized dividend of $4.12 and a dividend yield of 2.3%.
• Analysts have given Blackstone an average rating of "Moderate Buy", with a consensus target price of $172.38 following recent upgrades from multiple research firms.

Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC lessened its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 0.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 347,034 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 3,217 shares during the period. Blackstone comprises about 30.3% of Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $51,909,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BX. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX stock opened at $181.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.74 billion, a PE ratio of 48.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. 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 stock's 50 day simple moving average is $170.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $150.53.

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. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone's payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 808,757 shares of the company's stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. This represents a 11.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares worth $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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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