Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by Woodline Partners LP

Key Points

• Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. by 42.6%, acquiring an additional 18,478 shares, bringing their total holdings to 61,837 shares valued at approximately $8.64 million.
• Several large investors, including Vanguard Group and Goldman Sachs, have also significantly increased their positions in Blackstone during the first quarter of the year.
• Blackstone recently raised its quarterly dividend to $1.03 per share from $0.93, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 2.2%.

Woodline Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 42.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,837 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 18,478 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP's holdings in Blackstone were worth $8,644,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 14,608.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $184,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,606 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $151,524,000. Amundi grew its holdings in Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were 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 directly owned 808,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,353,571.52. This represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone acquired 1,189,532 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were bought 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 in the company, valued at $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,871,634 shares valued at $135,328,376. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of Blackstone stock traded down $2.48 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $181.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,356,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,392,924. The company has a market capitalization of $133.74 billion, a PE ratio of 48.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a fifty day moving average of $170.04 and a 200 day moving average of $150.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective 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. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $172.38.

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.