Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Acquired by Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC

Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,714 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $556,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi increased 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 buying an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $180.84.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price 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 approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $154.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.16, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s 50-day moving average is $170.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $155.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. Analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 117.71%.

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.