New York Life Investment Management LLC Purchases 1,345 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

New York Life Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 99,195 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,345 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $14,838,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX stock opened at $151.83 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.91 billion, a PE ratio of 43.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $169.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $156.43.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. 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 business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 117.71%.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 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 corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

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.